"Why did you do it, Zelos?"
When my head stopped spinning and I regained feeling, I became aware of the fiery pain in my abdomen. Looking down, I saw the cause: deep gashes laced my body, courtesy of my battle with Lloyd and the others. I thought maybe with my angelic powers, I could stop them. Obviously, I was wrong.
No. I knew I couldn't stop them. I...I was on the villain side, wasn't I? No person who hoped for what Mithos was trying for could stop Lloyd. What had I done? I looked up at the person who questioned me now. It wasn't Lloyd, it was Sheena. Sheena...I would never be able to tell her now how I really felt. If I did, would she believe a traitor?
"Why...?" As I tried to sit up, I coughed and returned. To my dismay, when I saw my hands, I realized what I had coughed up was blood. "Hehe. My injuries are that severe, huh? That was...pretty good." I said cheekily to the group.
"Zelos, what the hell is wrong with you? We were your friends! You could have lived with us in the new world! Why did you do this?" She asked, tears flowing freely down her delicate cheeks. Why did I do this? I couldn't remember. From the moment I met them in the castle at Meltokio, I felt with them like I had never felt before: like I had real, genuine friends, who cared about me for just being who I was. Did anyone else love me that way? My eyes drifted back to Sheena. Her skin was fair and perfect. White, almost like snow. It seemed almost too pure to be in the same picture as my bloody, tattered, traitorous form. Snow stained red with blood...
That's why I did it. That day, the snow stained with mother's blood, I had learned an important lesson: that my sister was the only person in the world who really loved me. Even mom thought I should never have been born. Maybe that was why I went with Mithos when he approached me. We were both alone but for our sisters; and because we both lost them because we were too weak to do anything about it. That was my first betrayal - I left Seles to rot in that abbey, simply because I thought there was nothing else I could do. That was why I agreed to turn Colette over to Mithos: to give Seles the life she deserved.
"Once I'm gone..." I sputtered, "...Seles can finally leave that abbey. She'll become the chosen, like she should have been to begin with."
"You thought you had to do all this just for that? You idiot! I-" She cut off, coming to her knees.
"When Mithos is defeated, we will get your sister out of the abbey. But what will we tell her when she asks where you are? Do you think she'll forgive you for siding with Mithos?" No. Seles would hate me for this. Then why was I doing it.
"Please, Sheena. Don't tell her what I've done..."
"You're our enemy! How am I supposed to know what you say is genuine? How do I know what to believe anymore?"
"Sheena...I...I know you can't believe anything I say anymore, but please tell her for me. Everything I've said all these years...it was just a mask. What I really felt...I wish I could say it all."
"Zelos..." She said, the tears continuing. As she wiped them once more, I felt one against my cheek, the coldness reminding me of everything I had caused.
"Colette..." I said, suddenly remembering what I had done. I looked behind me: the transporter was there. Doing my best to ignore the excruciating pain, I dragged myself towards it, hearing the worried words of my ex-friends as I slowly realized that I was shrieking with agony with each move I made. It seemed like an eternity of suffering before I made it to the transporter. Slowly, I reached my hand towards it. At my touch, the circle came alive, its light seeming uncharacteristically warm as I rolled my dying body back over and looked once more at the assembly. "C-Colette," I stuttered, the words becoming progressively harder to form, "Is in the Hall of the Great Seed. It should be ahead. Please save her. For my sake, if that counts for anything..."
"Don't talk like that, Zelos." Sheena again. "In spite of everything you said all this time, in spite of your idiotic antics...I...I always thought of you as one of my real friends." She said.
My eyes widened. She cared about me? What had I done? This was a mistake. I could have helped Kratos, gotten Lloyd the aionis, used my status as a spy to help them save the two worlds, not to try and destroy them. Why did I do this? It felt like this wasn't the way it should have ended. This should have ended some other way. Not like this...
"I've done so much wrong. I don't know if you guys can ever forgive me. But...I...want...you guys to know...I'm...sorry. Hurry up and...and save her. I'm...sorry."
"Zelos, I love you!" Cried Sheena abruptly. I looked at her, tears now forming in my own eyes. She felt like I did? I guess I was an idiot after all. The biggest I had ever known. But at least, with my last breath, I could tell her...
The words wouldn't form. As I saw her face fade away into black for the last time, there was nothing I could say. Sheena Fujibayashi would never know the way I really felt after all. At last, my feeling left, and my consciousness started to fade for good.
It should have ended another way. Not like this.