The blood was what woke Halt every night. The sight of the blood pooling around that body, so thin, so used would shake him. Every night Halt woke with shining eyes, face drenched with either sweat or tears, he was never quite sure.

Some nights, laughter and cheers from a voice that belonged to an apprentice long gone would awake him. Halt's heart would plummet to his feet as he found his cabin as empty as when he had drifted into his piteous sleep. The only thing he missed more than his apprentice's laugh or his voice was his eyes. Those inquisitive, intelligent eyes that could read the Ranger so easily. Those eyes that, even clouded with oncoming death and pain, told the Ranger how much he was loved. Those eyes, the eyes of a son left to the frigid embrace of death, hoping that his father figure would pill him out, hold him into health. Halt had held Will alright, but there was nothing that could be done about the gash in his abdomen. The intestines spilling out could not be pushed back with pressure.

"Dad…" the last word Halt had heard made his tears come faster than before. At first, Halt had misinterpreted that word, thinking Will had meant his father, but reliving that moment for nights on end finally sent him into more hysterical sobs as realization hit him.

"Will." He'd meant him. Halt was the one he meant. An inundation of tears flowed onto Will's cloak that night.

HAPPY ENDING

That night, there were no nightmarish figures come to kill Will again in his sleep. There was no grisly sight of the innards of his apprentice where they shouldn't be. The dream was like a movie. All the good times that the two had shared, even if half of them were in training…

The last thing Halt saw before he woke that morning was the toothy smile of Will, his hair shining in the sunlight, letting Halt know that it wasn't bad being dead. It seemed kind of fun. Halt hoped so.

NOT-LIKE-HALT BUT DRAMATIC ENDING

Prepare for a completely OOC Halt. I'm sorry if this ending is… not what you want

When Halt woke that morning tangled in his sheets. The Temujai had killed Will again, but this time they had made sure it was slow, painful.

Halt decided that there was only one thing to stop this torture. He pulled the cabin in order, making sure everything was placed just so, before scribbling his note on a piece of parchment. He scribbled a quick side note to where he'd be if Gilan were to come, and pulled out his saxe knife.

He marched a death march to a small clearing Will had found once. He felt tears again flowing from his eyes and gently set the saxe knife in a hole in the dirt, burying it with it's tip facing upwards. He took his silver oak leaf pendant and placed it in his mouth, before allowing himself to fall on the blade.

As his blood pooled out of him quickly, he thought one last thought, 'Will… I hope you've kept training.'

A/N: So there you go. Annoyingly depressing, huh?

I don't know if I even like this story now that I've written it out.

Ah well, it's up to you guys. R&R!

AND CRITIQUE FOR THE DEVIL'S SAKE!