The setting sun cast red shadows over the ground, almost like an ode to the events it had just witnessed. The blood had finally stopped pulsing over the once-green grass, their bodies would be growing cold soon. The contrast of red on green was stunning and, under different circumstances, she might have thought it was actually quite pretty. Instead, her numb eyes just stared at the scene uncomprehendingly. Two bodies were splayed out before her; One of them lay there because of her. Taking a life had never been her intention. Sure, she acted tough when she needed to, but actually ending a living, breathing things life was another story completely and it was something she hadn't thought she'd had the guts to do.
Everything had happened so fast, though, neither she nor Lalna had expected. Rythian's sudden appearance had caught them off-guard, given the shaky peace treaty he had offered them not long before. Lalna had never expected the pact to hold out, more than once he had told Nano that he figured Rythian would sneak away to pursue his revenge by himself as soon as Zoey recovered. He had been certain that it would last longer than this, though. His visit surprised them and the news he brought chilled her to the core; Zoey was dead. Rythian's voice was so...monotone when he announced it, like he was talking about someone he barely knew. His eyes were what scared Nano the most, they no longer looked like the Dark Mage's eyes. They were empty, there was no trace of the Rythian they once knew.
Nano would never know exactly what happened to Zoey, since he never went into details, but her death still came as a shock. When Rythian came to make the pact it had seemed like she was on the road to making a full recovery. There must have been complications, or something, because from the way he talked it sounded like she had never made it out of Sick Bay. Pity and grief had swamped Nano, because at first it seemed like that was Rythian's only reason for being there; To tell them what had happened. And maybe that really had been his intention, to keep things peaceful.
But Lalna couldn't leave things that way. He had to rub it in, make sure Rythian knew that he had one their personal war. The scientist dared to laugh in the grieving mage's face. "That's what you get! I told you not to try and get revenge on me." He had said. When Rythian's sorrow turned to rage, Lalna egged him on even more. Nano wanted to tell him to stop, but she was caught up in the moment too. She and Lalna were a team now, so surely his triumph was her triumph as well, and she could laugh too? She was learning that it was all a big game to the blond, he didn't really care about the outcomes of the others, he just liked toying with them. It had looked like fun.
Lalna never saw his death coming...perhaps they had both underestimated the grief-stricken mage. The scientist thought he had broken Rythian beyond repair, and letting his guard down proved to be a fatal mistake. Halfway through turning back to Pandalabs, a dark shape flew at him and an awful noise rang through the air. It was a wet, painful sound that was echoed by a sharp crack. Rythian's fist hand closed around Lalna's throat, cloaked in some sort of swirling, purple mist. Nano stepped back in shock and horror, the scene had happened so fast that she blinked several times to make sure she had seen it correctly.
And then her heart shattered. Nano would never hear him say her name again. Never awake late at night to find him still tinkering away at some experiment or another, never find him the next morning exhausted, but proud as he showed her what he had made. Was this what Rythian had felt when he realized that Zoey's heart would never beat again? Was this soul-crushing numbness what had driven him to think that killing Lalna would change anything? Nano couldn't judge him, though, because she was no different. Within seconds Rythian's body was just as still, just as lifeless, as Lalna's. His face glazed over with a look of shock, forever frozen in disbelief. He had never once considered that Nano would be a threat, that someone cared for the twisted scientist like he did about his beloved mushroom enthusiast.
Everybody seemed to be underestimating each other today...Lalna hadn't thought Rythian could kill him, Rythian didn't think Nano was cold-blooded enough, and Nano...well, she didn't think that Rythian had someone looking out for him too. The tiny girl moved over to crouch beside Lalna, staring brokenly at his rapidly-cooling face. It was the last thing she would ever lay eyes on. A silent arrow shot through the sky, piercing her chest just as quietly. Nano was dead before she even realized that she wasn't alone...but perhaps it was better that way.
No one was left to see the last, mourning figure as he stood in a circle of bodies that had once meant the world to him.
AN: Rewritten, revised, and hopefully 500x's better than before! After rereading the first version of this...I can't believe I actually posted it, it was that god-awful xD I'll probably be rewriting "Silence Isn't Always Golden" too, because it's honestly not much better. It's amazing how much I've improved in just like, what...two months? Three? I still have a long way to go, but at least I can see that I'm heading in the right direction.