Disclaimer: Well, as some of you readers might already know, I totally don't own TMNT or Tales of Symphonia, and likewise, I totally don't own Final Fantasy IX. Sad really. I mean, the things I could do if I came into possesion of it would be absolutely mind-blowing! Like remaking the game with voice-overs and having Crispin Freeman play the voice of Amarant! (starts drooling) That'd definetly be at the top of my 'To Do' list!

Oh, and I don't own Corrine Bailey Rae's song Like a Star

Well, I suppose there's nothing else I can say but read and enjoy so... read and enjoy!

If I was better, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

Maybe I wouldn't be sitting up against this big-ass rock, bleeding my damn guts out and... and wishing.

Wishing I'd been able to do something.

Dammit.

Amarant stared from under the hood of his hair at the starry night sky. The deep beyond. What the hell was out there in that "beyond" that fascinated people anyway? Just a bunch of stars and sky, endless, going on forever, but at the same time, dying and being reborn. Like most of the people he'd met in his life, they were cold, uncaring, and powerful. But at the same time... not like the few people he'd met only weeks ago. Not warm, not thoughtful, not... compassionate.

Stupid stars. They get so hard to see when you're dying.

It was his own damn fault in the fist place, he supposed. He had jumped.

Flashback:

"Eiko, get away from the railing, you'll fall over!" Zidane had called. She hadn't heard him, she was too busy staring at the sights below her to focus on anything else.

Perhaps if she had heard, his life wouldn't slowly be ebbing from his body right now.

She leaned over the rail, "Look at it Zidane! It's so big!"

"It's just a forest, there's nothing so special about it." he muttered, standing near the rail as well, arms crossed across his chest, face blank and impassive.

"Well sor-ry! I've never really traveled before I met you guys, you don't have to be an ass about it!" the eight-year-old snapped angrily.

That was right... she'd only lived in Madain Sari all her life, occasionally heading over to Conde Petie, A.K.A. Dwarfland, to steal some food.

Sometimes Amarant would forget that she'd not seen the world as he had.

The ship hit some turbulance and she went over.

"Damn brat, why didn't she listen?" the bounty hunter growled, going over after her.

A stupid move, he'd later on realize.

As he sped towards that little annoyance, gaining on her, he thought, 'Why the hell won't she summon anything?'

He wrapped his arms around the girl, shielding her body, and saw, eyes widening, that she couldn't.

She was unconcious, a thine line of blood trickling from her forehead up, into the open air. Little droplets spattered across his face as they hurtled closer and closer to the ground.

He didn't even know that she'd hit her head.

He held onto her tight as his body splintered trees, his face was whipped by limbs, and his legs and arms were lashed by branches. His shoulder landed particulary hard on a heavy branch, and he felt something crunch as he hit the ground.

Then... he blacked out.

When he had awoken, pain ripped through his side like a searing, slicing, burning blade. He would've roared in pain but when he tried, his voice only came out as a small wheeze, then came in coughing fits accompanied by blood-mixed saliva. He could feel them, his ribs, lumped together in odd positions, jagged fractures all up his side.

His breath came in short gasps, and when the throbbing in his head finally subsided, he let out a pitious groan, "F-f-fuck."

His eyes closed for a slight second, then shot open again as his arms, though weakened, clutched nothing but air. "Damnit!" he muttered, causing himself to have another blood-hacking fit.

The girl was gone.

Dead or walking around somewhere, he wasn't sure.

Damn brat. He hoped she got lost and died in this forest! That this was her grave, as well as his! It'd be only fair for abandoning him like that, leaving him for dead. If he came back as a monster or something in the like, he was going to kill her first.

Then the monkey.

He half-dragged, half-crawled to a large boulder, and made himself sit against it, his head leaning up towards the sky.

End Flashback:

He stared up into the deep blue and thought, 'So this is what it's like to die... figured as much.'

The red dreadlocked man supposed it wasn't the worst way to die. Very few of those in his line of work, hell, anyone just on the other side of the law, had the rare chance to die so... peacefully. He furrowed his brows and spat feebily at the ground. Forget that, this was the worst way to die. He hadn't put up a fight, he hadn't gone out in a battle. He was just sitting here, waiting for Death to come and claim him.

Amarant let out a puff of air, hacking and wheezing again. The amount of blood he'd lost was unknown to him, but surely, it had to be enough for him to die quickly...

... or so he'd thought.

The edges of his vision were beginnging to get blurry, and as he decided to close his eyes and just... give in, he swore he heard something... jingling.

The was also a voice. A melodic voice that accompanied the jingling; slow, sad and, oddly enough, pleasing to his sensitive ears.

He caught snipits of a song. Parts of lines. Sad and yet, at peace.

"... wonder why it is, I don't argue like this, with anyone but you..."

"You do it all the time..."

"... blowing out my mind..."

He decided... he decieded he liked it, it brought him a certain calm, none which he'd ever experienced before.

He could die... not "happy", no, "happy" wasn't the word for it. "Comfortably" maybe, "content" maybe, but certainly not "happy".

But then... the singing stopped.

Amarant grunted his frustration. His eyes were barely opened now and couldn't see much. From what he could see though, he was being checked over by a person of some sort.

The person... who had been... singing?

He felt a warm hand on his face, causing the cuts to sting. He flinched, a hiss between his teeth.

"You're alive... good." the person muttered.

He took one last look at the stranger before he passed out again.

Hell if he was going to trust anyone anymore.

So... what'd ya think? Is it good? Bad? Review and tell me what'cha thought, and if you liked it, then I'll post more for ya!

Gratzi!