Disclaimer:

I do not own it...

YAY! Guess what! I got my laptop!

Everybody, meet Stephen the Swift. Stephen the Swift, meet everybody! -gestures-

I'm really hoping that he will live up to his name. ^^

Em Phantom- Cliffhangers, or page-turners in normal books, are what keeps the public reading mah dear. If every chapter had a satisfying ending nobody would feel compelled to continue turning the page to see what happens next. Also, I just like being a little cruel sometimes. -cackles-

Elena Forest- Dear me, you got rather violent about that. X3 No grenades at Streaky please, if you do that then Blind-sided will be dumped on it's nose and you won't even get a nice little ending to wrap everything all together. Ah, and what happened to Jeb was this. Iggy looked around to find something to shoot at him along with the needle from the tranquilizer. He happened to get his paws on one of the APTXN pills that Gin had spilled all over the floor a little earlier. He held that loosely with his fingers and used the kinetic motion of the needle from the tranquilizer to basically shoot that into Jeb's mouth and make him choke on it. X3

Chapter Thirty-four- The Battle's Closing

A sort of stunned silence had covered the entire room. Shinichi stared blankly at the opposite wall, as if he couldn't really believe what had happened. And part of him couldn't. He had never expected, somehow, even in this dangerous situation that the person who would die would be Iggy. Somehow he had felt as if...Iggy was too strong to die.

Shinichi jerked into attention when Haibara let out a broken sob. Mechanically, coldly, the shrunken detective pushed passed the girl. His fingers sought out the all-too familiar spot he had grown accustomed to checking time after time. The place where one could feel a pulse.

Nothing. No heartbeat. The place where Shinichi put his fingers was earth shatteringly still. Sorrow welled up within him, and he vehemently wished that The Person hadn't been killed, just so he could get the justice he deserved for killing his friend.

His friend, his brother. Shinichi's heart hurt, but even with the agony whirling inside of him he couldn't bring himself to cry. The detective bowed his head, and hardly reacted even when Ran wrapped her arms around him. She held him close, and he was secretly glad for it. Because he felt as if she wasn't he was going to fall into small pieces, to break down and that was something he wouldn't do. He would not taint Iggy's memory by going berserk after his death.

As if it needed to be spoken he found himself croaking out the words, "He's gone..."

Haibara went very still. Shinichi was acutely aware of Kid and Aoko, who had returned, hovering in the background. The shrunken detective glanced over at his rival, and swore he saw a flash of sorrow in those eyes. After a moment Kid walked over to the corpse of The Person and stared down at the stone.

"Don't mess with that, Kid." Shinichi warned, exhaustion clear in his tone. The small detective leaned against Ran, grateful for her warmth at that moment. He didn't know how that stone worked, if it was some powerful element that somehow triggered the pressure in the air around it...or if it really was something magical. To be truthful Shinichi hardly cared about that at the moment.

An uncomfortable silence spread through the entire room. Kid glanced up from where he had been staring at the stone, his eyes seemed troubled, but then they were wiped clean of the emotion. "Tantei-kun we have to destroy it...so nobody else can get hurt."

Angel froze in the middle of the battlefield. Many of the organization members were arrested or severely wounded. Some were dead. Gazzy had gotten shot in the arm, and he was hiding out with a police officer by the name of Chiba that had gotten some shrapnel in his face.

Even though bullets whizzed agonizingly close to her head, she found herself standing very still. A single message had traveled through her brain waves, asserting itself with the sheer emotion that the thought held. Screaming emotion, an agony that Angel hoped to never feel. The agony of one who lost somebody they loved very dearly.

No! No! No! Iggy's not dead! He's not dead! The internal shriek had Angel standing rigid in the middle of writhing turmoil. She didn't even move until Dylan suddenly scooped her up and rolled away. It took her a moment to realize that they had just narrowly avoided being exploded into a million little Dylan and Angel pieces.

"Are you alright?" Dylan asked her, but Angel was shoving him away from her. A new desperation mingled with something like confusion in her mind. Her Voice...it should have warned her about this. As it did about Fang...right?

That all too familiar feeling, the one from the very day that she had thought Fang was dead, slammed into her like a tidal wave. Tears filled her crystal blue eyes, and panic gripped her. Angel did the only thing she could ever think of doing in a situation like this. She opened her mouth and screamed with both her lungs and her mind. "MAAAAX!"

Fang had forgotten how good it felt, to fight at her side. Yet every moment he spent with Max sent a stabbing pain through his heart. As much as he loved her, and he truly did, he had to put certain things before her. The world, for example.

He loved her...more than anything IN the world, that was true. But if there was no world there was no Max. Even an idiot like him could see that. So Fang had left her, he had been little more than a distraction to Max. A distraction that was dangerous to the Flock, and dangerous to her.

Even then though, they met each other. Twice now. Each time had him wanting to pull her close to him, to apologize for all the wrongs he had ever done to her. Yet he couldn't make himself do that. In the end he'd have to leave her again, or she'd have to leave him.

Oh, but they always fought so well with each other. Back to back, side by side. They were a team, made for each other. Dylan could go to hell on that retrospect, in Fang's opinion. Nobody would ever balance Max out better than Fang.

As if reading his mind, Max just flipped a man over. Fang caught him by the other wrist, and slammed him into the ground using teamwork with Max. Suddenly a shriek from Angel had Max stiffening. She shot up into the air and Fang followed not a heartbeat later.

They landed near Angel, who was in Dylan's arms and sobbing as if her heart had been broken. A sick feeling suddenly washed over Fang, and he watched as a look of fear entered Max's eyes. Dylan mutely handed the winged girl over to Max, and Angel buried her face in her neck.

"I-Iggy..." Angel choked out with a sob, "Iggy's dead Max!"

The first thing that Max said mirrorred everything Fang felt about this. That single syllable word described just how impossible this situation was. "No..."

"Where?" Fang asked Angel, keeping his tone calm and gentle. Angel's tear-streaked face peeked up at him. She seemed to go still for a few heartbeats, and Dylan worked on keeping the people around them at bay.

"There's a cliff on the back of the building. There should be...o-one window on the side." Angel's voice cracked, and she looked up at Fang with fearful eyes. "I can't sense Iggy at all. I can't...he's not..."

Fang took off into the air at the same moment Max did. She was still holding Angel to her chest, and after a moments hesitation Dylan turned back to the fight. Fang nodded his head mutely. Right now, Max would need Fang. Not Dylan.

Cold, calculating, clinical. He was a man who lived without fear. He was a man that lived with little emotion, except perhaps the joy of killing. He was not the kind of man that fled. He was not the kind of man that ran away.

Gin found himself memorizing those faces from that room. The way he only memorized those particularly pesky rats. Like Akai Shuuichi...yes. Gin was a man who felt little emotion, but he knew hatred well. Hatred could burn, but it could freeze as well. Hatred was a poison that could kill the user just as easily as the one they directed it at.

Those people, they would all die soon enough. Gin remembered how That Person had been killed. It was an unfortunate turn of events, but the man found himself smirking a little. Yes, this was an oppurtunity. The organization was his now. No man would dare to oppose him.

"Aniki!" Vodka panted behind him, trying to keep up. Gin stepped outside, pausing to take stock of what exactly was going on. A dead man was on the ground nearby, and he pulled a pistol from the holster at his hip. Checking the bullets confirmed that the gun was full. Vodka stopped next to him, staring, "Oi..."

Gin frowned. The police and the FBI...and it was clear they were winning. This meant he was going to have to get rid of everybody in this area...that bomb back in the station would do that job just perfectly. With no FBI or police to testify the organization would slip into the darkness once again.

"Vodka, get that package from the upper left cabinet." Gin said, cocking his pistol as he began to stride purposefully forward, "We'll merely get rid of-"

A bullet whizzed by, so close that Gin felt the air of it as it swept by on it's deadly path. Vodka fell down with a heavy thud, a new hole appearing right in the center of his forehead. Gin's cold eyes narrowed, icey hatred ran through his veins.

Akai stood, and lowered the gun he had used to kill Gin's partner with a smirk. Gin walked towards the man, and though there were people fighting all around them to Gin there was nothing. No fights for life around him, no turmoil. It was just him and the man that he so wanted to kill.

"You seem to be a bit shaken up, Gin." Akai spoke coldly, pistol held at a tense level, right at Gin's heart. Gin's was, likewise, pointed at the same organ of the man that sat before him. Gin only smirked in return.

"You seem a little scratched up." He replied in the same cold and even tone he always spoke in. There was something hidden beneath that tone, a hatred that Akai could clearly hear. Gin thirsted for this man's blood. This man who clashed with him so.

They moved at the same time. As if it were a dance, a synchronized act. Tension crackled through the air like lightning, and the two hardly noticed that their intensity had caused a momentary cease in all the fighting. Every man and woman, from both sides, was frozen to watch the outcome of the private battle between these two rivals.

It wouldn't take long, Gin knew. A bullet could end a man's life so quickly that one could hardly notice. Hundreds had fallen at the hands of Gin. So many people lost their lives to the trigger that Gin would pull...he had forgotten their names and faces by now. There was a time he kept track, but now he hardly cared.

Gin watched as his arm raised, the muscles of his finger itching to pull the trigger. As he lifted his arm he stepped to the side, trying to move around the man that stood before him. Akai was doing the same thing, the same exact movement as Gin. It just went to show how alike the two men really were.

The pistols were cocked at nearly the same time, the sound ringing through the oddly silent air like thunder itself. Gin realized at that instant that someone was behind. Somebody was a millisecond off in this dance of death, and no person would know until the trigger was pulled.

A gun in his face, the black holes in the barrel. Infinite darkness, like the organization he worked for. Black was everything, black was nothing. Black was the beginning, and black was the end.

A trigger was squeezed, the mechanisms in a gun were turning. A bullet was sliding it's way through the barrel, a deadly projectile intent on ending another life. Blood would be spilled. There was no avoiding it. Pain, so brief that there was no registering it, burned at Gin's forehead. A millisecond, it's how long he felt that agony.

Then the bullet was finished travelling it's destructive path, and the murderous man fell to the ground, his life taken in the manner many of his victims.

The glass shattered around her, buried into her skin in and drawing blood. Max watched with narrowed eyes as everyone turned to her with a look of tensed alarm. And fear, there was definite fear in those eyes. Whatever had happened here...

She let her gaze drift immediately to the person lying on the ground. So pathetically small, so fragile. Max's heart wrenched, a feeling of guilt weighed down her shoulders. As heavy as the entire world it seemed, as her duty to the entire world.

Iggy. She thought, unable to move for a heartbeat. She stood, rigid and terrified, for a brief instant. Pain radiated through her chest, it felt as if some person had gone and punched a hole where her heart should have been. I really and truly failed you, didn't I? Oh God...oh God no, not him...Not Iggy...

She knew it was dangerous, but then the boy's logic for them to stay behind had made sense. Max's conscience was screaming at her. Guilt roiled through her, and she stumbled back. She would have fallen, if Fang didn't catch her from behind.

"Is he..." Fang's voice trailed off, and Max felt him wrap his arms around her. She was a strong person, she wasn't weak. Max...wasn't the kind of person who broke easy. She could literally count on one hand the times where she'd been so shattered by something that it had felt as if somebody was killing her.

Now was one of those times. Max bit back a scream, and buried her face in Fang's shirt.

Christopher Smith was a veteran surgeon. He spent most of his life in Canada, but after becoming a surgeon and learning the language, the young man moved to Japan. He fell in love with the country almost immediately, and had been living there for nearly ten years now.

The man glanced down at the operating table, and tried to focus on staying coldly focused on his task at hand. A surgeon had to be seperated, if they let themselves get too shaken up by the things they saw everyday it could mean the death of a patient.

It was hard sometimes, especially during the particularly difficult surgeries. Especially during the ones that were labeled as hopeless the moment they were wheeled into the operation room on those gurneys. Christopher's eyes darted back to the small patient on the stretcher.

It was bad enough that everybody seemed to think the boy was as good as dead...but the fact that he was so very young...and he happened to be right around the age of Christopher's oldest son. It made him sick to his stomach, thinking that the people in this room had all but given up on that child.

I won't give up though. The man thought, warm brown eyes narrowing in concentration. I swear it to you little boy. Not until your heart stops beating, and even then I'm going to try and bring you back as much as I can. Don't stop fighting, Tsuburya Mitsuhiko, because I'm still standing behind you.

Kazuha stood next to Heiji's bed, wringing her hands in worry. She wasn't technically supposed to be in here, only family could go in. Still, Heiji's mother had called and gave her permission to enter the room so somebody could be there for the wounded boy.

It had taken some pulled strings, but Kazuha managed to be here.

He looks...pale. Kazuha thought. Pale and very very...bad. The doctors had said something about a collapsed lung, so he was hooked up to a resperator. He had stitches, and was bandaged because of that. Heiji looked, for the first time ever since she'd ever met him, truly fragile.

Kazuha sat in the chair near his head, examining his features and wishing she could do something more than just be present. Tenatively she reached out and squeezed his hand, hating the fact that it felt almost cold to the touch, that he didn't squeeze it back.

The nice nurse had said something about Heiji not being in critical danger for now. That didn't mean he was out of the woods quite yet either. Kazuha hated the machines he was hooked up to. Hated the artificial sound that came with his chest expanding.

Oh Heiji... Kazuha thought, tears flooding her eyes. What stupid thing had that ahou gone and done to get himself so hurt? And how DARE he do it without her there to make sure he didn't do it? So perhaps that didn't make as much sense as she would have liked it to but...

Heiji's eyelids flickered, and though he didn't opened his eyes he smiled in his unconsciousness. His fingers twined with hers, in the way that somebody does something in their sleep. Kazuha's tears spilled over her cheeks.

"Kami Heiji..." She choked out, almost glaring at him with that blissful smile on his face. "If you die before I get the chance to tell you how much I love you as much as possible I'll...I'll kick your butt you ahou!"

Takagi breathed a sigh of relief as the last man was securely handcuffed. The young officer shuddered as he looked around, aware of the fact that there were some people who had their lives cut tragically short on this awful evening. Satou picked the young man they had cuffed up by the back of his shirt, and walked him to one of the FBI vans.

"These people are under arrest by the Japanese Police force." Megure-keibu spoke in a serious tone as he addressed James from the FBI. "They will be available by interrogation as soon as the FBI goes through the proper procedures of seizing persons from a different country the right way."

"Understood, Keibu-san." James said, dipping his head to Megure. Both men, like most of the people here, sported minor injuries. Takagi walked over to stand next to the two of them, anxiously wondering just how most of their forces were.

"Fatalities..." Takagi said, and let out an uncomfortable cough. He knew now that he'd never be able to be a soldier. That battle...because that is exactly what it had been, was the most terrifying thing Takagi had ever done. It wasn't that he was a coward...but he never ever wanted to be in a battle that was life or death like that ever again.

"Thirteen FBI agents." Jodie's grim voice made Takagi turn around to face her. Worry for the smaller group the police force had brought along spiked through him, "Zero police officers, however there seems to be a rather serious injury to Chiba-keiji back there. He's been rushed to the hospital by a young woman who was with you."

"Yumi-san." Satou said, as Takagi felt a dizzying sense of relief and worry at the same time. He hoped that Chiba would be alright, the officer was often on cases with Takagi, and the two of them were fairly close friends.

"Thirty-six enemy fatalities." This was spoken by a calm looking young man that had most of his face hidden in shadow. All that Takagi could really see were his olive colored eyes. Jodie seemed happy to see him though, despite this grim news. "Most of them committed suicide before capture, but we managed to take exactly seventy-two of their members and place them in the custody of the Japanese Police. This gross amount of people means there is no escape for Them. They've finally been cornered in a place that they'll never be able to escape from."

"Some of them managed to escape though." Satou spoke up, standing so close to Takagi that he felt a slight blush cover his cheeks , "That's to be expected though. So the perimeter is secure. Do you still have contact with that group you sent inside?"

"We do, they haven't found anything yet. It seems as if the building is designed a bit like a labyrinth." Jodie said softly, she looked around, her brow furrowing slightly. "As for those...ah, the students that were here earlier...they appear to have a few members missing."

Takagi blinked, looking around. So it seemed to be true, that there were at least three of the group missing. Takagi spotted the small dog standing nearby, so he knelt down to be eye level with the little animal. "Ah..."

"Total." The dog said, arching and invisible eyebrow at Takagi. Squirming a bit at the strangeness of speaking with an animal of all things, Takagi coughed and gestured behind him.

"Total-kun, do you know where the rest of your group happens to be right now?" Takagi asked, watching as the FBI members and Megure stared down at the tiny dog in complete shock. Total blinked a little, as though surprised and Takagi hastily babbled out, "I just assumed that you would know...you seemed to be pretty capable and...ah..."

"Oh, sorry." Total said, something like pleasure flaring up in his dark brown eyes. "Let me see...Gazzy appeared to have a minor gunshot wound, he was taken to the hospital with the police officer that was hurt. Dylan and Nudge are standing over their by that curly-haired inspector guy."

Total stopped suddenly, concern flaring up in his dark brown eyes as he glanced off toward the building. After a few moments the small dog turned his chocolate gaze on Takagi again. There was an immense amount of worry in those eyes, it almost caught Takagi off guard.

"It seems that...that Iggy was gravely injured." Total said, glancing over his shoulder toward the building again. "He...ah, we have suspicions that...it's very possible..."

"He's okay!" Takagi was startled by Nudge, who came up behind him. Her eyes were filled with tears, but there was determination there as well. "Iggy is NOT dead. He's just not, there was some sort of mistake...or...or..."

"Iggy-kun?" Satou said, her tone serious. "That means he's here as well as Conan-kun...and possibly injured. Total-kun do you have any idea where they might be in that building? Is there any way for us to get there?"

"There's a window in the cliff-side." Dylan said, "Though I doubt any of you would be able to get there. I bet we could at least inform everybody inside that things are under control out here.

"And make sure Iggy's okay..." Total added, glancing over at Nudge for a heartbeat. Takagi felt a sick feeling in his stomach. If a little boy was wounded because they had been unable to bring help in time...he could only hope that both Iggy-kun and Conan-kun would be alright.

Mouri Kogoro most certainly did NOT want to be sitting in a hospital bed at the moment. The private detective felt jumpier than he ever had before. It was as if all of his nerves were placed on a hair trigger, and one could hardly blame him. His daughter, and the two children he was taking care of, were both apparently in danger.

Megure had been kind enough to leave behind some information before rushing out to rescue Ran from these people. Kogoro would have liked to have followed, but the door to his hospital room was being guarded. His attempt to climb out the window had been thwarted as well.

He never could handle the thought of his daughter being in any sort of danger. Oh, Kogoro could face anything else in the world, but if his daughter were to be killed...he didn't think he would be able to handle it. The tentative grip he held on what little sobriety he had would surely vanish. Kogoro wasn't even sure if he would be able to go on living if his daughter were to die. Kogoro felt a wave of nausea at the mere thought.

"Ran..." Kogoro muttered, glancing out the window. The door the hospital room he currently occupied suddenly opened, startling him somewhat. The person who had opened that door startled him all the more, and he found his eyes stretching wide in surprise. "Eri?"

"It seems you've managed to get yourself in trouble once more." Eri spoke in a calm voice as she crossed the floor and sat next to his head. "You really amaze me at the stupid things you can manage to do sometimes, dear."

Kogoro narrowed his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he was feeling incredibly relieved that she was here with him by looking a little irritated. "Getting attacked from behind is something stupid?"

"Clearly you weren't paying attention." Eri spoke in her normal clinical tone. With those words though, Kogoro felt his stomach churn sickeningly with guilt. The man stared down at his blanket, suddenly chastened.

"It was my fault...that Ran got taken." The man spoke harshly, focusing cold dislike on himself. Eri didn't say anything for a few moments, before she sat down next to him on the bed. Her hand grabbed his, and though she avoided his eyes he couldn't help but blink in surprise.

"You did nothing wrong, dear." Eri said softly, "And...Ran is strong dear. She must be just fine, we both have to have faith in that, faith in our daughter."

Looking into Eri's eyes for a moment Kogoro really had to believe that was the truth.

Utterly heart shattering. One can never possibly know exactly how agonizing that feels until you experience it yourself. Shiho thought that she could never feel something as painful as the day she lost her big sister ever again.

Perhaps she had been correct, in a horrible way. This was not like the time she lost her sister. It was a pain that couldn't compare to it because it was different. She loved her sister, and she loved Iggy in two different ways.

Both of those ways had been shattered, and Shiho was aware that this time she might not be strong enough to move beyond the pain. The antidote was finished after all, the world didn't truly need her. Not without Iggy in it.

She was only dimly aware of Fang, Max, and Angel entering the room. She was only dimly aware as Shinichi moved around, focusing on what she should have been focusing on just then perhaps. Which was telling the two newcomers what had happened.

Iggy...She thought, hating how he was already growing cold. Shiho was crying, but it was something that was almost done unconsciously. She had retreated far into herself at the moment, so deep that she thought it was very likely she would never resurface again.

Was she truly this hated by cosmic powers? Was this agony some sort of punishment brought on because she had created one of the most ruthless poisons to ever be used against a human being? Shiho felt as if she was being literally choked by the unfairness of it all.

He didn't deserve to die. She thought to herself, shutting her eyes and letting the tears leak out from beneath her eyelids. He was INNOCENT damn it all! He never deserved anything like this! His life was hell enough...and now he's gone...

Oh he was gone. The absence was sickeningly clear to her. She hated it, hated all of this.

Shiho was not a woman who dealt with emotion well. She was cold, clinical. The emotion she ever did feel was something that she hid deep inside of herself. She was trained to do this because of that accursed organization, but now she found herself terribly exposed for all the world to see. Her heart had been shattered, and she could do nothing at all to hide the fact.

"-beyond any kind of medical help." Shinichi's voice drifted into her consciousness, and Shiho glanced up at the shrunken detective who was standing with an expression of grief on his face. The small boy was in front of Dylan, Max, and Angel, and as he glanced down he choked out, "I'm..sorry."

As if it's your fault, Kudou-kun. Shiho thought, feeling a slightly delirious twinge of amusement at the poor small teenager. She felt her fingers loosen their hold on Iggy's hand before slowly standing up. Tears somehow still tracked their way down her face. It wasn't you he died trying to protect...

Slowly she tracked her way back toward the man who had killed Iggy. Shiho stared down at him, wishing despondently that she had the chance to take revenge. Oh, it was wrong she knew. But she wanted it so badly...so badly that it hurt.

Shiho could do little about that, when the man was dead. The shrunken girl bent down, her fingers merely a centimeter from the shimmering surface of that red stone. Ran's hand was placed firmly on her shoulder, and Shiho glanced over at the girl, ignoring the way she winced away from the dead look that was sure to be in her eyes.

"Ai-chan, you...that stone is dangerous." Ran said. Shiho glanced back down at it before opening her mouth.

"The Pandora Gem, The Philosopher's Stone, The Sorcerer's Stone, The Elixir of Life, The Crimson Elixir..." Her voice sounded even emptier of emotion than usual, and she knew her face bore no expression. She only had her tears. "This stone is of many legends. It is said to have the ability to change lead into gold, and to give eternal life."

"Ai-chan...you can't possibly truly want those things. You saw what it...did..." Ran trailed off as Shiho closed her fingers on that stone. It pulsed under her fingers, burned the palm of her hand. She moved, turning to walk slowly back to Iggy.

"There is a possibility that...that I could bring him back with this." Shiho softly murmured, "Even if it's the smallest possibility, even if it's supposed to be impossible...I have to TRY..."

Silence filled the room. Shiho hadn't been aware that everyone was paying attention to her. She knelt next to Iggy, and with a slight wince she pressed the stone against his chest. Desperation flooded through her, mingling with the overwhelming grief that swirled like clouds in her mind.

Please...She thought, frozen mask of no emotion vanishing from her face. Her raw desperation was shone there, and judging from the way that Ran and the other's glanced away it was somehow worse than before.

To describe the indescribable...it's an impossibility. I was...I don't really know where. A place that was closed in, but open. A place that was completely and utterly black, and yet blindingly white all at the same time. I didn't see a tunnel with light...but I'm just unsure if I was dead long enough to not see it yet. Or maybe I was supposed to be a ghost. I don't know how to explain everything...

Heh, maybe I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel because I'm still blind, even in death. That's either slightly amusing, or just really really sad, and I'm kinda leaning towards the latter with that one.

I was...aware, I guess. Though I couldn't truly feel anything. Or hear anything. So maybe it wasn't all that odd that I couldn't see anything either. I was aware that I felt...unhappy. Worse than I've ever felt ever before.

Yet I was relieved too...

I had said something important...some important things. Something had happened, but I couldn't seem to recall what. All my mind could focus on was the strange surreal quality of the NOW that I seemed to be in. But it wasn't just now. It was then, and it was going to be to.

Then, finally, somewhere in the darkness came that light I'd been expecting all along. I don't know why I was expecting it, maybe it had something to do with urban legends. Or just the fact that that's exactly what everybody said all the time. When you die you see a light at the end of a tunnel.

I was dead. Holy crap.

I somehow didn't really realize that until just now. It made me...feel scared. What was going to happen? Would that light lead me to Heaven? Was there a Heaven, and if so did I belong there? Perhaps Hell would have better suited a guy like me.

And what...what about Shiho.

Please...I could almost hear her voice swirling around me in the dark-light of this strange place. Of the crossroads of the dead, that seems to be more than a fitting name for where I stood now. It came...I could have sworn that it came from that light.

I don't know how I moved, because I'm pretty sure that I kind of didn't have any feet. But I did, somehow I drew myself closer to that light. Trying to ignore the instinctual fear I felt for it since the light was a pulsating red.

Red was a color to fear. Red was the color of my death.

I stopped, my being tightening around myself in dislike. No, I couldn't go there. Not to the redness, not towards what would only remind me of agonizing pain and heart shattering goodbyes. If I went back the other way I wouldn't have to go towards the red...

Come back Iggy. Please come back...Those words again...Shiho? But how...or why? The red, she was in the red, and I had to get her out of it somehow. Which meant that I was going to have to go into it.

Terror, fear. My whole being was repulsed by that idea. To have to face the very thing that ended my life...who could blame me? It was a sickening terror that had me stuck in indecision. My heart would have been hammering...had I had one at that moment.

I love Shiho more than I hate being afraid. I love Shiho more than that light scared me. I would go into it, no matter what. Even if it meant dying again...er, I don't think you could really do that in the state I happened to be in, but I would do it.

I would risk eternal damnation for her, as cheesy as that sounds.

Going into that light...it brought unimaginable agony to me. I was surrounded by read, I was gasping in pain, and then I knew nothing at all. Not the strange place I'd been before, and not the real world. There was nothing for me, and for the moment I was content with it.

What happened?

Did he come back to life? Or was the pain too great and was his mind and soul completely shattered?

Well whatever happened it'll all become clear in the next update. The VERY last one. That's right folks, next upload is the epilogue!

Reviews are as loved now as they ever were.