Pain riddled his body and made broken pieces of his conscious; darkness edged its way around his vision and left him with only the blurred remains of the battlefield around him. The screams and shouts of the continuous fighting barely registered over the sound of blood pumping in his ears. The very tips of his fingers had gone numb as an eerie coldness drifted over his body and left a masochistic-like comfort to shelter his skin.

This was it…

He had always imagined a death like this would happen to him sooner or later; a death that would prove to him… he wasn't the strongest. A death that would give him some sense that others could survive to be around him.

But they were dead now…

He was the only one left standing, or rather dying now.

In all honesty, he embraced it. The cold, soulless life he had convinced himself to live was finally slipping away… maybe there was promise of something better on the other end. He didn't want a happy ending but maybe something better than this; something better than a fool on strings who had enough power to desecrate those around him without even the means to do so. Death was a comfort. He could finally accept that.

But… he only consented to it because Death had taken away something he had lived for.

It was so comforting now but… moments before, Death had been nothing more than a cruel, senseless bastard he wished for nothing of.

"I'm so sorry…" his voice was weak and shallow; he could barely tell if it came from his lips or if he was merely thinking of the words instead. "We shared our fears… our distrust… everything… but I couldn't save you; I couldn't even protect you… When this life is over, I want to meet you in another world."

His body refused to carry out the actions of his mind but his last resource of strength fought bravely. Fingertips reached out to touch the ones who fell open to the sky; mere inches separated them but that short length was enough to torture him. He could feel himself shaking from the exertion of strength it took just for that small motion.

"You helped to cure a disease I thought would be the death of me… Tia…"

X

Broken fingers carefully moved to close the space between the absent touch that separated them.

Her energy was slipping and barely hanging on at this moment; it was barely enough to keep her alive for too long… the thought of death was almost comforting at this point though. Her shattered senses failed to pick up even the slightest movement from him; it failed to even trigger at the lightest brush of his energy.

It didn't take her long to figure out why.

"You've already left me… haven't you?" she whispered; giving into the faint hint of metallic blood at her lips. Dying blue eyes watched him in the remains of her vision, unable to forgive the cracked evidence of his hollow hole; the damage had long since spread itself across his chest in a massacre of the symbol that had committed them to being heartless.

The marks of betrayal that decayed on her body had long since given up and removed any sense of pain from her consciousness. Her scattered thoughts barely able to piece things back together… and she was thankful for it almost. This way… she could die without hate; she could die in a sense of comfort.

An odd, masochistic sense of comfort.

Everyone else was gone…

There was no reason for her to keep hanging on.

For once… she found it acceptable to give in and give away. There was nothing else that this life could offer her.

"… I'm going to meet with you soon enough… it doesn't matter how or where but our paths are going to cross… I'll make sure of it." it was taking what little remained of her strength to keep talking even though her words barely passed themselves through her bloodied lips. "All of us… we'll be back… we were puppets and toys but… that illusion didn't last… it's over now. SunSun and Apache and Mila Rose… they'll be there with me… and so will you… promise me that."

She slowly slipped her fingers between his own and rested her hand in the empty touch of his.

"It was a pleasure to meet you… Starrk…"