No words came out. Ludwig opened his mouth, but nothing came. No tears, no words. The world came to a screeching halt.

"Gilbert?"

The storm raged on.

"Gilbert?"

Snow swirled through the air.

"Gilbert!"

The words were coming faster now.

"Gilbert! Gilbert!"

His shouting became laced with a healthy amount of swearing.

"How could you, brother?! Gilbeeerrrrt!"

Then he had nothing left to say. He just shook with ragged sobs as the wind howled on indifferently. An uncontrollable shivering came over him, and his hands clutched the only piton still hammered into the mountain. His breaths came in raspy, pained gasps until he finally calmed down, but the anguish of his brother's death still wracked his insides with guilt. He should have been able to save his brother. It was all his fault.

"Eliza...Elizabeta," Ludwig called out in a weak voice. All of his previous strength had disappeared along with Gilbert. "Elizabeta, I need the extra rope. I need to...change this rope. It's broken and..."

His voice faded into the roar of the wind as he realized she wasn't responding. It was hard to see her on the other side of the gully, but what he did see caused his whole body to go numb. Elizabeta lay against the North Face in a very unnatural way. Her face looked away from Ludwig, and she had slumped down on her knees. A dark trail of what could only be blood stained the snow that accumulated against the rock wall. Another pool of the liquid was forming around her head. It was already starting to freeze. With shaking hands he reached into his pack to pull out his bivouac sack. If he couldn't escape the truth, he might as well try hiding from it. However, as he was unrolling the bag, a strong gust of wind wrenched it from his shaking hands, and it disappeared into the storm.

The awful truth hit Ludwig in the chest with the force of a train. He was alone. In a matter of minutes, he went from being in a four-man team to being the lone survivor of an expedition gone wrong. A horrible fear seized his heart and sapped most of his remaining strength. He was going to die on this mountain. With no rope, no water, and no way to stay warm, he was already as good as dead.

"They're as good as dead," one of the men said with such finality that Lili could almost hear the funeral bells ringing in the distance.

Vash had led her back to the resort and barged into a private dining room despite the multiple people that had protested their advance. It turned out that the mountain rescue team was eating an early dinner when the siblings walked in unannounced. They didn't seem pleased by the interruption, but they didn't send them away either. Lili wondered if Vash would have allowed them to kick him out.

"Please, you have to try," she urged.

The quiet rescuer looked to the others. "It wouldn't hurt to try..."

"Dude, I am not going out in this weather," the energetic one replied.

"Why does it matter so much to you anyway?" the cynical one said as he went back to his food.

Lili found herself at a crossroad. She could continue arguing with the men, or she could give them a reason that they couldn't say no to. It would be embarrassing to say in front of her brother, but there was no other way.

"Ludwig is...he's...we're...together."

All three of the rescuers paused to stare at her, and she felt her face flush. "You guys...we have to help," the quiet one insisted.

"Mattie's right," agreed the energetic one with a sigh. "We gotta at least try."

"It's not worth dying for." The cynic's extremely large eyebrows furrowed together as he narrowed his eyes.

"Where's all that chivalry you're always talking about, Arthur? We can't let this poor lady down."

The cynic, who was apparently named Arthur, looked back and forth between his two teammates and finally gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine, Alfred. You win, but if we die I'm holding you personally responsible."

"Thank you," Lili whispered. She was so overcome by relief that she was afraid she'd cry if she tried to talk any louder.

The one named Alfred raised his fork. "Last one done eating has to carry all the ropes!"

"Just shut up and eat, you annoying git!"

Lili insisted on following the rescue team all the way to window 38 against Vash's pleas to stay at the resort. The wind was still as strong as ever, and the men had difficulty climbing out of the gallery window and onto the mountain. Snow shifted beneath their boots and threatened to cause them to slide off the North Face. They braced themselves against the wind and slowly shuffled away from the window. There was no way they could know where the teams were, so they had to shout for them.

"Ludwig! Gilbert!"

"Elizabeta! Roderich!"

"Ludwig!"

Somewhere in the snow, the tall blonde man stirred. He thought he heard someone calling his name in the wind. "H-hello?!"

"That's him!" Lili gasped from the window. "Ludwig! Ludwig, we hear you!"

He recognized her voice. "Lili?! Lili!"

"Where are the others?!" Alfred shouted.

"D-dead! Three dead! I'm t-the only one left!"

A grim silence came over the rescue group. "Can you get down?!" Arthur eventually yelled.

"N-no! I'm stuck! You'll have t-to come and get me!"

"There's no way we can get up there in this weather!" the quiet one, Matthew, said to the others. "Tell him we'll have to come back!"

"We can't climb in this weather! We'll come back in the morning!" Alfred shouted.

"No! Don't leave me! You have to come and get me!"

"We'll try again tomorrow," Arthur told Lili as he squeezed back into the narrow window tunnel. The three men began their walk back through the train tunnel leaving Lili alone to hear Ludwig's pained cried.

"I don't want to die! You can't leave me! You have to help me! I don't want to die!"

"Oh Ludwig." Lili said softly. She carefully crawled out of the window and onto the frozen mountain face. The wind pulled on her clothes and hair mercilessly, but she didn't give up. Ludwig finally stopped screaming at the same time she found a small nook to settle into. "I won't leave you, Ludwig. I promise. I won't leave you." She lowered her head into her arms to protect her face from the wind and waited.

The first thing she noticed as she woke was that the wind had stopped. Sometime during the night, the storm had finally blown itself out leaving the North Face with a fresh new blanket of white. Lili brushed off the fine layer of snow that had settled over her and stood on stiff legs. She was surprised to find that all of her limbs and appendages were in normal working condition. Vash would be furious when he discovered that she had spent the night on the mountain, but she couldn't find it within herself to care. She was the one who had cared enough about Ludwig to even try, unlike her brother and the rescue team.

With the wind and snow gone, she could clearly see Ludwig's unmoving form high above her on a small rock ledge. Somehow he had spent the night huddled against the mountain with no protection other than the clothes on his back. Lili had at least been in a place where the cold wasn't as severe, but he wasn't as lucky. She watched him with concern as the sun rose higher into the sky. He didn't move.

"Hello! Anyone home?" Alfred's head appeared from the gallery window. "Wow, you sure get up early." He stepped out onto the mountain face, and his companions followed closely behind.

"How long have you been out here?" Arthur asked.

"A-all night," she answered.

"All night?!" The three exchanged shocked looks.

"I wish I had a guardian angel like you," Matthew said wistfully. His breath made the curl in front of his face bob. "That Ludwig is one lucky guy."

"Speaking of which…" Arthur stepped forward and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Ludwig! Ludwig, are you okay?!"

There was a long pause. Lili feared that her worst nightmare had become a reality. After a few more excruciating minutes, Ludwig stirred. It was just his arm at first, but soon his head lifted and turned to face his rescuers.

"I'm…I'm okay."

"That's one lucky bastard," Arthur said with a shake of his head. "Okay, let's get to work."

The three men began to search for handholds in the mountain, but it quickly became clear that it was not going to be an easy climb. They were only able to progress about five meters up the mountain. Lili followed eagerly behind the rescuers and realized at the same time they did that they would not be able to get any higher than they already were. The ice and snow made it too difficult to go any further, and the rocks themselves weren't ideal for climbing either. It was starting to become apparent that this rescue was not going to be a simple one in the least.

Alfred finally voiced the question the others were all thinking. "What do we do now?"

"We only have one choice, but it's not going to be easy," Arthur replied. "He's going to have to abseil down himself."

"But he doesn't have enough rope!" Lili objected.

"We can give him a rope." He turned toward Ludwig and began to shout. "Ludwig! We need you to abseil down to us!"

"Not enough…not enough rope."

"Unravel whatever you have left and lower it down to us! We'll tie it to a longer one you can use!"

Ludwig didn't answer, but his hands went to work. In actuality, it was one hand that went to work because the other one no longer functioned. During the night, it had turned the same purplish black that Elizabeta's arm had been, and he could barely move any of the fingers at all. Even with this disability, he didn't abandon his efforts. He used his good hand to find the end of the rope wrapped around his chest and began to painstakingly unwind the individual strands and tie them together with his teeth. Normally, such a simple task would not have taken long at all, but Ludwig was at the end of his strength. His hand moved with stiff, uncoordinated jerks, and he often fumbled to keep the strands of rope from falling out of his unsteady hands. The only thing that kept him going was his will to not die. It wasn't going to end like this. Not after all he had been through.

The others watched his slow progress patiently, but soon had to find other ways to keep themselves occupied. Alfred forced Matthew to participate in some kind of game while Arthur watched. It was Lili who first spotted the thin rope dangling in the air. Five hours had gone by since Ludwig had started, and she quickly alerted the others. They began to shout at each other excitedly as they tried to figure out where they had put their ropes. Finally, Matthew pulled a long rope from his bag, and Arthur quickly tied it to the one Ludwig had lowered for them.

"You can pull it up now!"

As slowly as it was dropped down, the thin rope began to ascend carrying the other one with it. They all watched as it rose higher and higher. Eventually, the end of the rope came into view. Much, much too soon.

"That's not the sixty meter rope," Alfred said in a soft voice. "Which one was that?"

"I-it must be the thirty," Matthew responded as he dug through his pack. "I-I can't find the s-sixty. We must h-have forgotten it."

"Well, what do we do now?! He won't be able to make it down with just the thirty meter rope!" The two men started to tear out the contents of Matthew's bag with panic-filled eyes.

"H-here! Tie this to the end!" Matthew handed Alfred another rope, which he tied to the end of the other just before it was pulled out of reach. "That was the other thirty. He should be able to get down now…p-probably."

They all watched as Ludwig took the makeshift sixty meter rope and fixed it around himself. It was tied in such a way that he could control how fast and how far he rappelled by letting more or less rope slide through his hand. Once it was secured to the piton still embedded in the mountain, he began his descent. He would drop in short, quick spurts, but it was better than nothing at all. With every few meters he descended, Lili felt the coils of fear surrounding her heart loosen. He would be safe in a few minutes. She wouldn't have to worry anymore.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. He was only a few meters from being rescued when the knot between the two ropes caught in the carabiner he had on his chest. There was a brief struggle as he tried to get the knot loose, but it was in vain. Everyone watched in stunned silence as he dangled in the open air, unable to continue. It had to have been a joke. Life was just playing a sick cruel joke. To be so close to the end but with one last impossible roadblock to keep Ludwig from reaching his goal was just too much. He seemed to resign himself to his fate and hung limply from the end of the rope. He had fought a good fight, but this was the end.

"Ludwig…Ludwig!" Lili's dread-filled voice cut through the air. "Ludwig, you have to keep trying! You can't give up!" Without a thought as to herself, she started to climb up the icy rocks toward Ludwig.

"Hey! You're going to hurt yourself!" Arthur called after her, but she didn't listen.

She only stopped when she found a small ledge at the same height as the remaining Beilschmidt. There was no fear or sadness, only determination. "Ludwig, look at me. Look at me!"

The climber somehow found the strength to lift his head. His face was covered in dark patches of frostbite, but his blue eyes were as clear as Lili remembered. She forced herself to not break eye contact and to be strong. She was his strength now.

"You have to keep trying! Don't give up! Try again!"

Ludwig's hands strayed toward the knot. All he had to do was lift his weight off the rope long enough for the knot to slip through the carabiner, but it was a Herculean effort in his current condition. Despite the odds stacked against him, he gripped the rope and pulled. He managed to lift himself a few centimeters, but it wasn't enough for the knot to pass through. His arms went limp once more.

"Please, Ludwig! You can't give up! Please!" Lili held her hands out to the man she loved, begging him to come to her. "Please! Please!"

His breaths came in shallow gasps as he tried to lift his arms. Each movement was painful and took a tremendous amount of energy. He was tired. Tired of hurting, tired of being cold. All he wanted was to rest, to rest and forget. His eyes found Lili's face. Tears were starting to spill onto her cheeks and glistened in the sun like tiny diamonds. He wanted to tell her not to cry. He wanted to tell her he was sorry and that she shouldn't blame herself for this. This was his idea, not hers. There was so much he wanted to say, but there wasn't any time. There was never enough time. Life was too short to say everything there was to be said. Even in a hundred lifetimes, he probably still couldn't tell her everything he needed to. It was a pity, really. If anyone deserved the words in his heart, it was her.

"Ich kann nicht mehr."

Ludwig went limp and was very still.