Title: Armageddon
Summary: They had cast aside all their grudges and bitter spite, but their reasons were a selfish thing. They were told to save the world. They were about to rip it to pieces. Semi-AU.
Type: Ongoing.
Note(s): Certain things will deviate from the canon chapter 363, but events after chapter 481 will be altered completely.
Warning(s): Just the usual. Language, death, torture, lame battle scenes, suicidal thoughts… yeah.
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognized terms or characters.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
KARL MARX, Capital
1
Perception was reality.
That much was obvious.
If people saw you as a criminal, they would treat you like one. They'd mark you in the Bingo books, and they'd do their damnedest to have you killed or detained. And if people perceived you as some wounded idiot bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere, then they'd drag you to the nearest health centre for healing. Because if you were wounded, you must've been injured by someone evil.
Seriously. They thought two plus two equaled six or something. Konoha nins and Akatsuki were enemies, and still they saved him. It was a wonder they didn't die out quickly for being such bleeding hearts.
But he digressed. If his mental clock was right, he was found over two, maybe three months ago, in the middle of a disaster zone, bleeding and laughing like there was no tomorrow. Well, back then, if those goody-goody leaf-nins hadn't found him, that would've been the case. So why shouldn't he laugh? The pain that erupted throughout his body was near blinding. It was a sore wake-up to reality. He didn't die as a masterpiece. He was going to die slowly, and painfully, and it was just so funny, because it seemed, he never got what he wanted. Ever.
So he continued laughing anyway, like ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, and blood was spilling from his mouth and rolling down his cheeks, but he couldn't feel it. He was in too much trauma, too much shock. Deidara felt more than just numb, and it was funny. So he laughed.
Even if it was sick that he never got to be a masterpiece. Like he wasn't deserving of art. Like he wasn't meant to be art. Like what he did wasn't art at all.
It was an epiphany, that he was wrong, just like how Sasori had been wrong. Deidara was pissed beyond belief, because damn it, he was supposed to go out with a bang. It was supposed to be art. It was going to be his masterpiece. And it failed. Deidara failed. His art… wasn't art. It hurt. It seemed he would always be proven wrong. The reality of it stung.
Then, something just broke in him.
And Deidara saw red. It was the ugly kind of red that filtered through your vision and consumed you, the kind that was like blood, with how it darkened with time. He thought it was rather fitting that he was lying there in his own blood too. He was probably a hideous, but awesome sight. But he wasn't art, and so he laughed. And he laughed, and he laughed.
And then the Konoha-nins showed up.
Deidara couldn't remember what happened next, which was strange, given how extraordinarily clear his epiphany had been. The next moments were blurry. There was a dog smell. There was a lazy, lilting voice. And then— there was chakra. It was weird chakra, like warm, green chakra. It slowly but surely lulled him in a state of calm and he hated it. It had him gurgling in protest. He didn't want comfort. He didn't ask for it.
He just wanted to die already, yeah, so leave him the fuck alone.
He was seeing red, and he was seeing green, and he was seeing hate, hate, hate.
And then, he saw nothing.
A/N: Kishimoto really gets a kick out of killing off the best of characters. When Dei (and pretty much the rest of Akatsuki) died, I was like, "Nay! Kishy, U cannot do this! No plz!" in my head, but did he heed my prayers? Nay. U_U I mean, seeing them all zombie-like was kinda awesome, but... you know. They're still dead.
So here's to denial.
Review, if you want to live. :)