A/N: I wrote this a while ago on , so I decided to re-write it here. It will probably be replaced on Fanfiction with this one. JSYK, it's set in Blackrock.

Zoey worked happily away at the farm, tending to the crops and feeding the mooshrooms. Teep was out hunting, and Rythian was studying in the magic room again.

Zoey hummed as she worked, and when she was finally done she decided to go and check on Rythian, poor guy had been sat in there all day. He really needed to relax and take a break once in a while, he could be such a workaholic. As she approached the door, she heard him speaking to himself in another language she didn't recognise.

"R'ah, raaf Darghk kaes, ee hasewa caegaa'mvk d'louwd büd rs'trakar!" He shouted in annoyance, throwing his ring to the floor.

"What does that mean?" Zoey asked, bending down and picking up his ring, holding it out to him.

Her sudden presence made him jump slightly. "Z-Zoey? W-Wh-When did you get here?" He stuttered, graciously accepting the ring and sliding it back on his finger, which was crowded with many more rings.

"Right before that last sentence, it was all I heard. What did it mean?" She asked again.

"O-Oh. Nothing important," He said, trying to shrug it off.

"No, please, I wanna know," Zoey begged.

"It meant- 'Oh, for God sake, I wish magic would be easier'. Happy?" He questioned.

"Not quite," She said with a smirk. "What language was it?"

Rythian sighed. She just couldn't let things go, could she? "Ender," He mumbled barely auidible.

"Sorry, what was that?" Zoey asked, making a show of cupping her hand around her ear.

"Ender," He said, speaking quite loud.

Zoey giggled. "I'm sorry Rythie, I'm know I annoy you sometimes, but you're just too cute when you're annoyed," She replied, and walked off.

Rythian blushed under his mask, thankful for the cover it gave him. 'You're cute all the time' He thought, but didn't dare say.

That was this morning.

Now Rythian lay asleep in his bed, skin as white as snow as if all colour had been drained from him. His breathing was unsteady and laboured, his voice was raspy and worst of all…The soft comforting glow of his purple eyes had dimmed to such a faint light you couldn't really see it unless you were in complete darkness. His once warm hands were cold to the touch.

"I'm so sorry Rythian…" Zoey mumbled as she cried. A steady stream of tears had been flowing across her cheeks ever since it began.

~Flashback~

"Aghhhhhh!" Came Rythian's cry.

Zoey hurried to him, to find him on his knees, eyes screwed shut, head hung and arms clutching his stomach.

"R-Rythie? Rythian what's happening?" She cried, rushing over to help him stand.

"I- I- I think it's- p- poison," He stuttered, already struggling to breathe properly.

"Poison? How did you get poisoned?" She asked, supporting him as he walked unsteadily to the living room.

"I- I don't- know," He answered.

"Do you think it was Lalna?"

"If it is, he has stooped to a new low,"

"Well, who else could it be? You stay here, I will go confront him," Zoey said firmly.

"What? No! He'll kill you!" Rythian tried desperately to persuade her not to go. "At least take Teep with you,"

"No, Teep has to stay with you. You can't fight like this,"

Rythian sighed in defeat. "Okay, but take my sword, and be careful," He said.

"Thank you," She said, taking the katar from it's sheath.

~Back in the present~

As Zoey stood up to leave, a hand grabbed her wrist gently.

"P-Ple-ease…D-don't…go," Rythian strained, forcing himself to speak.

"Rythian!" She exclaimed, gently hugging him. "Do you feel any better?"

"Do I-…l-look…any better…to you?" He asked.

Zoey giggled lightly. "Even in the weakest state you could be in, you're still sarcastic,"

"Z-Zoey…" He began.

"Yes?" She asked, looking into his violet eyes. They had lost their sparkle.

"Zoey…I-I'm gonna die here…" He admitted, hating to dampen her spirit.

"W-What?! No! Don't say that! You have a life stone, a-and magic, and you can- you can…fix it," She ranted, starting to sob. "Don't leave me," She whispered.

Rythian sighed. "My-…My life stone won't…won't save me…I'm-…too close…to death," He explained.

"I can't live without you," Zoey cried. "Please! Don't go,"

Rythian shakily reached for a piece of paper, but Zoey grabbed it and held it out to him. He pushed it back towards her. "Zoey?"

"Yeah Rythie?" She answered through teary eyes.

"Promise me something," He said.

"Anything,"

"Don't cry too much at my funeral…I've always hated seeing you sad. It just doesn't suit you," He said, and with those parting words breathed his last breath.

His body went limp, his eyes slid closed, his chest stopped rising and falling; however his heartbeat continued for a few days after, and Zoey was glad that she could still hear it's gentle thump. For her it almost denied his death. He was just sleeping, that was all.

For a really long time.

Part of her wanted to accept his passing and move on, but a majority of her just said to stay with him and hope he would come back to her. After all, he always did.

Eventually, it became too much for her. Teep tried to make up for it but he just wasn't the same.

Teep found her dead in her room, laid beside the recently deceased (And surprisingly well preserved) Rythian with cuts in her thigh. She had bled to death. The sheets were stained red with her blood.

A few days later there was a joint funeral. They were buried in the old graves Zoey had made when Steven the Sentry died. Everyone attended and mourned them. Even Lalna came, and said he mourned Rythian. People asked if it was his doing, and he said no.

"That's too low for me. If I was ever going to kill and/or kill Rythian, it would have been one on one combat, not poison. Poison is for cowards," He claimed.

Teep went to work with Xephos and Honeydew, and everyday thought of his friends.

Too young they had been.

Too young.