Keep up: books three and four never happened.

Dissolve and Decay

She wore crushed velvet, jet black and to the floor.
She rode on angels' wings that used to shine oh so bright.
Now the dark has caught the spark in her eyes and I, I can't find the air.

So many things can happen in one split second, but I learned this too late.

The enemies were closing in – their hairy bodies reeking of bloodlust and hatred as they danced around the two of us, the only two left, the only two strong enough to fight. We'd ventured off on our own and now we met our match – fifty or so Erasers versus two well-trained fighters.

An army of dark clouds, chasing the sun away from us as the day wore on, was infiltrating the blue sky. We stood, back to back, holding our fighting stance, murmuring things under our breath at the other. Strategies. Profanities. Jokes. Only the two of us, I mused, would crack jokes at a time like this.

Though I was fighting my own battle, I somehow managed to catch out of the corner of my eye her sly movements and infallible technique. So graceful, yet so determined. A smile came to my lips involuntarily, but she was too busy to see it.

We fought precisely and viciously, aiding the other whenever help was needed. Possessing somewhere very close to reading the other's mind came in handy in a time like this more so than any other.

"Fang!" she shouted, her terrified voice getting closer. She knocked me to the ground, and we rolled, leaping up at the same time. Cringing inwardly, I watched as a knife swung where I had previously been standing. "Stop daydreaming," she scolded, and took off, trying to outwit the Eraser with the sharp object. I simply strolled behind him, laid him out, and then stuck my tongue out at my comrade.

"It's all fun and games…" she muttered warningly, but I pretended to ignore her. I scissor kicked one easily, and I heard her snort from behind me.

I'll wait for you, I cross my heart.
Dissolve and decay, there's nothing left for me.
This fire's dying down, there's nothing left to see.

"'I laugh in the face of danger,'" I quoted, and turned directly and looked at an Eraser. "Ha-ha-ha –"

Click.

The two of us froze.

"Ari," Max seethed venomously, and I felt a growl rise in my throat.

"Well, well, well," he grinned, and I was instantly reminded of the Joker from the Batman movies. I shuddered at the thought of Ari relating to him at all – "Why so serious?""Why so serious?""Why so freaking serious?"

Because I'm going to rip your freaking teeth out, mongrel. Why else?

"What have we here?"

Stepping closer, I heard the sound of his boots squishing softly on the damp grass, light and lenient. The clicking sound had been emitted from his pistol, which he now held squarely at Max's chest. My breath hitched in my throat as I tried not to panic.

Max sighed. "Ari. Come on… seriously? Aren't guns a bit too big of toys for you to be playing with?"

He roared at her, stepping closer and cocking the gun. "Don't mess with me." He looked in my direction and tilted his head toward Max. "Move, and I shoot," he warned, and the look in his eyes was… wrong. Something about him was different. Bloodshot… twitchy… was that foam…?

My jaw dropped, and I burst into hysteric laughter born from complete and utter shock.

Max looked at me like I was a blubbering idiot, which was not far from true, I guessed.

The gun instantly pointed in my direction instead, which was a huge mistake. If he really wanted to get to me, he'd have to keep pointing it at Max. She was, after all, my best friend of fourteen years and Alpha dog… ignore the pun.

"Wait," I fervently tried to gather myself, holding my midsection because it hurt from laughing so hard. "Hold on. I'm not trying to be ignorant or anything. Or… offensive?" I barked out another laugh. "But do you have…"

I cast my eyes sideway at Max, and instantly she caught on. Quick addition. A smile popped to her lips and she nearly had a conniption from laughing as well.

Walk slowly towards the light, she's calling and I'm falling down.
She's crying and I am lying about last night.
She can't find a way to tell me and I can't find the air.

"What?" Ari shouted, pointing the gun from one of us to the other. "What are you laughing at?"

"Rabies?" Max choked out, nearly falling over.

Ari's eyes got even redder and he fired the gun once into the air. Instantly, it was silent again – though I was still trying to not implode from how hard I was inwardly laughing. Max emitted one short giggle, and then fell quiet.

"I'm sick and tired of this!" Ari snarled, advancing even closer on us. He walked to Max and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. She jerked her head one way, but then realized that the barrel of the gun was at her neck.

"Daddy's little girl," he mocked her, and then scoffed. "That's always what you were. What about how I felt? Left out Ari, alone Ari. Dad never thought once of me, did he? He just loved you, though."

Max rolled her eyes and Ari gradually got angrier, the veins in his neck sticking out. "And I'll put a stop to it now," he grinned, pushing her chin up with a long finger.

"Dad didn't give me enough love," he began, looking at her directly in the eyes. "Dad ignored me, so I did bad things. I acted out. It's proven that when bad things happen in your life, you act out. Rebel in response to them. So maybe if something happens to you, you'll rebel. Stop being true to who you are. Be so angry at me, that you'll kill me… though I'm sure you'd be incapable of that at that point," he chuckled. "Incline you to do something so bad that Dad could never defend you."

He cracked his neck one way and then the other, keeping the gun tight to her neck. "So maybe I should do it," he mused, pretending to think about it. "Maybe I should pull this trigger and fire a bullet directly into your skull, blowing your brains out mercilessly, and then deal with Chuckles over here." He gestured to me.

Max didn't flinch, but I knew she was panicking inside. My blood was racing, my heart was pounding, and I was so ready to wail Ari on the side of the head with my fist before anything could happen to her. If she was hurt… if he killed her…

A tight feeling rose in the back of my throat and I swallowed it down. No.

"But I know you too well, Maximum," he smiled pleasantly. "I know that if you die, you can't feel anything. And besides physical pain and literally murdering you, there's one single thing I can do to prevent you from functioning properly. One thing that will incline you to hunt for me until I'm dead, and then Daddy can't love you no more."

Dissolve and decay, there's nothing left for me
Sit back and let her die slowly, don't cry, she didn't love you anyway.
Dissolve and decay, there's nothing left for me.
Just try to make it out alive, yeah, alive means your blood is flowing.

Max was thinking all of this out, but it clinked on all cylinders for me, clear as day, before he even shot.

In a split second, he'd pivoted and fired the gun directly at the left side of my chest, as Max's torn and severed voice shouted, "NO!"

My body hit the damp grass before I could register much else. Ari was laughing manically, that I knew, even in the fuzzy stage that I was in. Then Max's face was hovering over me, endless warm, salty rain dropping on my body. Her slender body wracked with sobs as she cradled my head in her hands, screaming for someone to help her, anybody, though I was positive that even Iggy was too far away to hear her.

"Fang, Fang, Fang, Fang, God, no, Fang!" she repeated over and over, choking on her own words and syllables. The physical agony was shoved aside by the pain I felt listening to her cry, feeling her sorrow over me.

It was one of those moments – when you're positive something can't happen to you, and then it happens anyway. A reality check, of sorts. Though my life was never about reality… that's for sure. Regardless, I lay on the mossy forest floor, listening to my own ragged breaths and watching a perfectly healthy, breathing girl wear away as she watched me in my own dying hour.

I remembered vaguely the time on the beach when she'd tried to cut the chip out. "You die when we die!" I'd told her angrily, patching her up as well as I could.

She was trying to repeat this now, pressing a warm cloth against my bullet wound, though it only made it hurt worse. "You die when I die," she repeated to herself, nearly unintelligible through her thick voice. "You die when I die, you can't die, you have to stay here, Fang, you can't leave, please don't leave – I can't survive without you, I can't deal with this… you have to… you can't…" she trailed off and broke into even worse sobs, giving up on the warm cloth.

"Please!" she begged, and it tore my heart into pieces to hear her mourn in this way. "Please, you can't! Fang, you can't!"

Breathing became a labor, I discovered. There was something missing from this conversation – something that I had to tell her. Something I'd been denying all along, and something that I needed to accept. My lips struggled to form coherent sounds, but I managed it out in a low rasp.

"I love you," I managed, with a painful small smile.

"Fang," she exhaled. "Please, please… PLEASE!"

"You're… supposed to… say… something?"

"God, Fang, I love you too!" she exploded. "Of course I love you! But you can't – please don't give up, please, Iggy has to hear me, he's pretty much a fucking doctor, he can do anything with his hands – we can fix you, don't give up, keep breathing, oh, God – IGGY!"

There was a low response somewhere in the distance, and Max cried even harder. "See, he hears me – it'll be okay, Fang – IGGY! HELP! Call nine one one, do something, do anything!" she was hysterical now, screeching in a voice so unlike her own.

"I love you," she repeated over and over, brushing my hair away from my sweaty face. "I love you, so much, I love you, it's going to be fine, and okay."

She bent down and swept her lips across mine tenderly, and I inhaled painfully when she pulled away. "I love you," she said again.

I nodded lazily and felt a strong, powerful sleepiness settle over me. "Forever," I forced out, and smiled one final time as a heavy curtain of black settled over my aching body.

Dissolve and decay, there's nothing left for me.
This fire's dying down, there's nothing left to see.

Holy potatoes… that's really heart wrenching.

Love this song… review! Sorry if you are sad ):