Notes on the chapter : 'Kay so I actually liked this alot, but it got kinda eh in my mind around the part explaining her distance from her friends, and it went from being okay to eh from there on. Please review and tell me what you think ^^ .

1. Humpty Dumpty

"Your world is dying before your eyes."

Amu's eyes snapped open, alert, a voice she didn't know penetrating her numb state. A hard task to do these days. The voice was new, she had never heard it before, yet it felt so familiar to her, like she had listened to this voice her whole life. She looked around to judge the people around her action's. But it appeared as if no one else had heard the voice, or if they did, they didn't show it. Everyone in the classroom kept a focused (well as focused as you could be with Nikaido teaching…) stare on their clumsy teacher, trying to find the right slide for the math lesson he had planned today. Amu sat up straight, all her senses aware now, as she tried to casually scan the room for whoever had spoken. But no one looked her way, no one paid any attention to the once striking pink haired girl.

"Cool and Spicy!"

Those words, once annoying, now spit back at her in her mind, a taunt. She looked around the room again, and her eyes fell on the blonde haired, pink eyed boy sitting across the aisle from her. And instantly, she wished she hadn't looked. Her heart squeezed in a painful way that almost made her gasp for air. What did she see there that hurt so much? All this boy was doing was looking at his teacher, just as every other teen in the room was. Maybe his posture was more erect than the other boys, always the perfect example, but other than that, there was nothing unusual about the way he sat there. Amu whipped her head back around, her eyes boring holes in her desk as she tried to regain her composure. She felt the prick of the tears from old pain sting her eyes. Familiar pain. She should be a master at suppressing this pain by now. She stared down, angry at herself for being so weak-

Weak.

Weak.

Weak.

The perfect word, She thought. It was like that one word was made for her. She defined it. She was the perfect example. The word that had danced through her thoughts, through her dreams, through her nightmares for weeks now.

Again, she suppressed the pain. This was not the time for a meltdown, she told herself, definitely not the place, in a room full of her peers. She tried to tell herself she was done crying, but she knew she was lying - Oh, another word that fit - that when she was alone, she wouldn't be able to keep the pain from washing over her, pushing her down into the darkness that was her life.

When did it all go wrong? So horribly, terribly, wrong.

She tried to pick the date before, but it never worked. Of course she remembered the day of the final straw, the final break in the weak thread holding her world together, but did that count? What about the days leading up too it? The weeks of deceit.

Maybe that final day did count. By the end of it, her life was thoroughly broken, though she couldn't see it yet. All she saw was the shadow that hid the face of one, and the wide innocent eyes, now so deeply guarded by sadness and betrayal of the other. The day the blonde boy, Tadase, found out the blue haired one, Ikuto, had been there when he let go of his armor and truly opened his heart.

"Would you let me fall in love with you? - Was it?" She could hear Ikuto's mocking tone clear in her mind, as if he were there with her saying it. But no, that was impossible. There was no way Ikuto could be there now. He made sure Ikuto only saw the light of day when he was completely sure it was a black world that he was in. One where there was no exit. No key-

Lock, and key.

That was how it had all started, wasn't it? She wasn't sure she could trust her memory though, not now.

"Get the hell out of here! I never want to see your face again!" Now it was her own voice, perfect clarity like his, that she heard, her screaming, sob choked voice. The memory was like a slap in the face, a reminder of how horrible she was to him. But she was too blinded by the anger, to think about the motives he could have of wanting to hurt Tadase and her. Too blind to see he was protecting her family, keeping them from getting involved in the world he was binded too, making up for his Father's mistakes. Mistakes. She thought back to the night she tried to fix hers, the memory of Ikuto's dead eyes, seeing nothing, the memory of flying through the air towards the thing that could fix everything without having to say a word. She flew up, her arm extended as the Embryo waited there, patiently almost. But then, as her fingers reached out farther, this time to make a real grab at the glowing white egg, the Embryo let out a blinding white light sending her flying backwards, her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes. And then she was falling, the lock expelling Ran from her, the only thing that was keeping her in the air. She fell, her eyes closed, her hands clutched together around the lock protectively. The sound of air whizzing past her ears, causing the sound of Ran's screams as she sped after her owner, as if to catch her in the air, sounding distant and far away. And then as if being said in her ear, another person yelling, just one phrase.

"Holy Crown!" Just in time, as usual, Tadase created a soft crown-shaped cushion Amu fell on too with a little bounce. He sucked the illusion back into his staff, and expelled his Guardian Character of his own free will. He waited to see Amu was okay, and then he turned to leave. She could have called out to him, and he would have turned around. He would have listened to her feeble explanation. But she kept her mouth shut, because of the fear of getting hurt again. So he walked away from her, for the second time. And somehow, this time it almost hurt more than the first. Probably because this time, she had the choice whether or not to end his pain, and she choose wrong.

So the days went on, and they acted civilly towards each other- could you expect less from the King?- talking when they needed too, avoiding contact when they could. And slowly, it tore their group apart. Nagi, normally the one who helped everyone through their problems with his cool logic, became unsettled by Amu's depression, the blank expression she wore stabbing at him, bringing him back to the thoughts of his Guardian Character, locked inside her egg, and the new identical egg, only different in it's color - Her's pink, the new one's blue - still laying un-hatched. The first Guardian of Seyio that did not have a Guardian Character by his side. Too consumed by his worries, he didn't try to mend the broken bond between her and Tadase.

Rima, Amu's new best friend, tried to pretend everything was alright when in reality she was crushed with the fact Amu hid the fact Ikuto had been staying in her room with her, and she hadn't even told her. They were supposed to be best friends, and this secret fueled every insecurity she felt. And no matter how well she put on the façade, everyone noted the way she didn't act the same around Amu.

And poor Yaya, with no idea how to cope with her friends falling apart, remained quiet, finally ceasing with her baby attitude, no one paying attention to her anyways.

And Amu saw this change in each of her friends, and it made the cut in her deeper, to the point that when she was alone she would gasp in pain, wrapping her arms around her torso as she cried and tried to hold herself together.

But all the kings horses, and all the kings men, couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again…