A/N: Prompt this time is illegal. Enjoy!

4. Final Solo

Solos sucked. They didn't grab the world - but, sometimes, the world was too big to grab into her hands.

She was greed and proud of it. But she'd failed, this time. She was failing, and that's why she had to sing her solo now, to save at least one person from it all, to make it worth something...

All selfish reasons, and she'd been proud to be that selfish because she got to sing to the world and how great was that? And she got to fight the Noise and save people, even if it was a selfish reason at the base of it all.

But she could see the fruits this time. Spoilt fruits scattered around, and the only moving things the Noise that devoured the fallen bodies and Tsubasa, far away and swinging her long sword.

And the girl twitching through the wound in her chest, knocking on truth's Gate.

Oh yeah. She was going to save her. She could see it in her eyes. Someone special. And the desire to bring people together.

She didn't even know this girl, her fan, but she liked her. And she wasn't going to sacrifice what she liked.

Hey... what's your name?

But she was already singing her solo song and it was too late to ask. Her energy was bleeding out: the red that wasn't blood but her lifestream nonetheless. The final magic she could do; the last song she could sing.

It didn't matter that she wasn't human anymore.

Actually, it did. It meant she could do it when they'd fail.

And this was the perfect way to go. Not giving up on life. Passing it on.

Hey. She'll be living in a new body now. A younger, stronger one who didn't have to be drunk up on Linker to fight the world. That actually sounded great. And they'd be together forever.

Who cared if it broke the laws of the world? They were already outside the law.

So why was it a solo song? Why was she crying? Why did she want Tsubasa to hold her one more time?

Could even a monster like her find human love?

But she couldn't think that now. She would only falter. She, the epitome of greed, couldn't falter, because she could never settle for not saving everything. This concert was a stain. A black, black stain and now it was red as well, the red that bled out of her, into the other girl.

The Noise were falling back. Finally.

That girl better have the potential she thought or it was all for naught.

Because she didn't want to die. She wanted to live, and sing, forever.

It was for that she sung her final, solo, song.

The song devoured her senses. For a moment, all that was there was the red - Kanade's hair? - and that song, sad and begging for another chance at life, in her ears.

And then she felt hands take hers, and guide them.

Was she an angel now? Taking her to heaven?

Oh, but her mother always said to not follow strangers.

But she was too tired to pull away...

Her eyes slipped. The song dulled as Kanade's unsinging voice snapped in her ears. 'Focus! Don't give up on your life!'

Don't give up, she repeated to herself.

Her fingers drew a circle, and a note inside, with her blood. She couldn't see what she was doing, or why, but Kanade was there, leading her, so it had to be okay. Kanade didn't want her to die. That had to be a good thing. That had to be a promise.

Miku, I'm going to have a long story to tell you...

Miku smiled. Or maybe it was Kanade. She was getting reality and her memories all muddled up. And then it was definitely Kanade, turning away to greet someone else. Someone as tall as her - Tsubasa? - but Hibiki couldn't make out any more. Not even her own pain.

She felt her chest. The blood was gone as well.

'Hi,' said the voice. Androgenous. Not Tsubasa then. Maybe a doctor? 'Welcome to Truth.'

Truth? Had she gone sleepwalking then? Or followed some mass hallucination? Or had she wound up dying after all? Oh dear...