Author's Note: Hmm, I have some plot prodders ready for this fic... I think you'll like them. Chapter features some definite romance, which tons of angst accompanies, and some violence. ^^ Ooh.


He had waited so long for the moment where the object of his every affection, who he was sure to place on a pedestal far above himself, to admit that the feeling wasn't one-sided. And a happily ever after it would be, with no hassles of saving the world from certain destruction, full of the laughter and joy that he hadn't experienced in months. Nobody would have died, no hatred would have been bared ... but still people needed his help.

But who cared? He'd helped them enough and they did nothing in return, and they did nothing when he was in deeper trouble. Losing your life and sanity to an odd set of emotions was a lot more serious than losing it to some misty substance...

What on earth happened to him, the valiant hero protecting the weak and innocent?

The footprints he left in the road up to Nivora Ravine said that he had continued only for one purpose: to see Gi. They said that he had dragged on and on, regardless of how heavy his heart was, to see his damn enemy. Walking a good amount of green miles to his death -- or so he thought.

The valiant hero and the enchanting villain had fallen headfirst for each other and now it was bared. The bouncy sidekick and the agile right-hand woman had sworn never to kill each other. However, the strong and silent warrior had emerged on top of the strong and loud powerhouse of an enemy.

But either way it went, all three of them ... the Delilas siblings... they were their enemies. Gi, Lu, and Che were all standing strong, facing the trio of heroes, vision gone red and senses gone numb. It would have been the same thing for said heroes if a high and cruel laugh hadn't echoed into the chamber out of nowhere.

A purple shadow darted all around the cavern, following the laugh. The siblings turned to face the spot where the shadow finally landed and materialized as the tall and curved outline of a person. They dropped to their knees in respect when Zora showed herself -- more respect than either had ever had for her.

"How very, very touching!" she cackled, a slender hand rising to her cheek. "So my little helpers have found the meaningless of life!" Her expression darkened, and the smirk that accompanied her laugh crashed down into a frown. "I'm surprised and so very sickened." Her hands lashed out to gesture to the heroes, who had assumed defensive stances, and her fingers snapped. "Kill them."

Her cackle followed as she backflipped and faded into white, then black. Gi, Lu, and Che all turned back to face their opponents, eyes gone black and feelings absent for the moment. Vahn looked over to Noa once more, a single tear hanging off the curve of her jaw. "What are we gonna do?" she called out to him, her voice entangled with agony that could've brought anyone to tears.

He just shook his head and sighed. This was too hard ... too confusing, too fast. He didn't want to kill Gi, but did he have a choice? Was there a way to heal him? "Try not to hurt her," he replied softly.

Noa's eyes went wide, and cold steel suddenly kissed the flesh of Vahn's neck. He was paralyzed there with his head cocked to the side. "You touch my sister and all of you will suffer," came a growl that was definitely not Gi. It was Gi with malice holding his heart like a vice.

They were frozen in that position, one threatening the other, bodies so close but hearts so distant. "Put your dagger down, Gi," he breathed. He could feel his body temperature rising, blood pounding in his head. "We don't want to harm your sister, and I don't want to harm you. Just put it down and don't do this to me..." Sweat gathered around his neck where the dagger rested, dripping slowly down his flesh in cold droplets.

Silence stood between them, and it was so depressing to be caught like this. Was it going to be a bloody ever after for him, and Gi's internal struggles would have been for naught? The remainder of his life controlled by Zora -- or plagued by the moments that he did, killing the trio of heroes in the process and regretting it? Whichever way it went ... some part of it, big or small, wouldn't be pretty.

A small choke was forced out of Vahn as the blade began pressing itself forward and blindly desiring to go further. He had to do something to stop Gi... hitting him would only trigger him to fall backwards, and it would create a large upwards stroke rather than a thin, deep gash.

There came a shrill scream and a small flash, and his eyes averted as far as they would go to where Noa and Lu were. It seemed like Lu had been driven crazy enough to dive right in instead of going about Gi's slow and torturing method. Noa had involuntarily painted a crescent of shimmering red beneath her feet, while the same liquid ran from a wound in her cheek like a faucet.

Her right hand clamped itself over the injury and she flinched at her own touch, left hand curling into a fist. "Lu, please don't do this!" she gasped, in a bad effort to hold back tears. "You're not the one killing me! I want you here... and I'm still not going to kill you no matter what you say.... or do. Just because you're doing this against your own will... doesn't move the block that doesn't let me harm you..." To contradict how slowly the tears had gathered in her eyes, they shot down her cheeks and kept their paths moist.

But nothing that she said registered much with Lu... she was poised for the kill and she couldn't stop herself. As she neared Noa, the terrified girl's eyes darted momentarily to Vahn and Gala ... they seemed to be just as bad as she.

For lack of a better plan, she sank to one knee and waited until her temporary rival's shadow loomed over her. As her arm raised, she then tore to one side and scrambled to her feet, running towards the middle of the section of chamber that was theirs. In a murderous rage, Lu followed.

Vahn had been standing there, watching her try to escape... how he wished that he was in a position like that. Anything but this, where the slightest movement would spell pain or death. He couldn't win Gi back by fighting him, and he certainly wouldn't win an internal battle with himself if he did...

... could he win him back by loving him?

When one has a knife pressed tight against their neck, and it's far too close to breaking the skin, the flow of sanity in their brain is halted and whatever remains of gut instinct takes control. At this moment, his gut instinct was telling him to go with that crazy idea and see if anything happened. The worst that could happen was... well, he would die.

Depending on a miracle and Meta's ability to heal him somewhat, he slowly inhaled and let his insane backup system force his eyes closed and slide into his body. "Gi." The voice was quiet, touching, distracting in its own way. Gi blinked very hard and stared into space for a second as a harrowing darkness loomed out of his vision. That second was all the "hero" needed to slide his left hand backwards, not caring much that it touched down upon Gi's upper thigh in its journey for his free hand. He found it, and wound his fingers around the other set gently but... tightly. Gentle in his compassion, tightly in his silent vow that he would never let go.

The words that followed had no hesitation, no second thought behind them. They just spewed without control, like he somewhat feared his own blood would if he wasn't careful. "I didn't tell you yet how much I love you. Even if you hold me like this until we rot, it won't change. I love you so much that I'd apologize for bleeding all over you if you beheaded me."

His grip tightened ever so slightly, and he felt a dangerous tremor running through the body that held the dagger threateningly. To make sure that nothing stupid happened right when he thought he had things under control, his right hand raised up slowly and cupped Gi's wrist tenderly. He held it steady with little power, not sure what to do... "I came all this way to tell you that, and I'm not about ready to let Zora's hatred cloud your sight." His hand began moving away from his own neck as slow as possible, to make sure that there was no resistance -- none.

Exhaling through his nose a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, he guided the weapon away and kept his hand there. As he began turning to face Gi, his hand slided skillfully up towards the dagger, body and hand moving together. He stopped in quite an odd position: his body was almost on top of the other's, his fingers were prying off the grip on the weapon one by one, and Gi's raised arm had been wound around him from the turn.

"You even admitted it without so many words yourself... if you hadn't cared, I would have been dead and decomposed by now. If you still can't see me in reality... then let this memory be buried with me..." Just like that, again without hesitation or any sense of what in the world he was doing, he arched his neck forwards and dismissed the gut instinct by pressing his lips ever-so-gently against the other's... once more testing for hesitation, for a violent reaction.

His eyes closed and thanked Tieg for not abandoning him now, and would have sank in and relished the delightful warmth that pulsed from his soul and invaded the blood running through his arteries and veins ... if he wasn't watching his step. It was like sticking a hand in a tank of piranhas that hadn't eaten in months...


Even if he was on his guard, he focused too much on that warmth. The piranhas saw the flesh they desired and sprang for it ... the muscles in Gi's back twitched and tightened, and the pleasure was met with pain before it could be quickly broken. Vahn was unable to pull the dagger from his grip, which tightened once more, and his arm retracted like measuring tape, stopping and raising back and above his own head. "I still remember you," he growled fiercely. "It is not her hatred blinding me, it is my own! I hate myself for succumbing to you, and I hate you for thinking that fate didn't make us polar opposites for a reason!"

Before Vahn could defend himself or protest, he found a scream of pain tearing through his chest and surfacing through his gaping mouth just as his flesh was torn. His vision and visage was sprayed with warm red, and he felt as if he had been trapped in some horrific, unforgiving world...

As the ground did not object to his temporary stay and the blood that was thrown upon the canvas from wounds running across his left arm and torso, a familiar high and cruel laugh invaded Gi's senses. But it did not force him to drop to one knee in respect, or grin at the defeat ... because its owner was nowhere to be seen this time around. Zora seemed to be mocking him...

... it couldn't be. He felt no pain, no scorn, no mockery while he was controlled.



In a frenzy, Gi blinked his eyes hard and looked down at his hands. His hand contained a dagger, sharp side fresh with blood... the other hand, bloody as well. He lifted his gaze upwards, where his wide eyes froze cold as anything upon Vahn. But he could not scream... he could not do anything... his mind would not latch onto any coherent thought.

Meta flared an insane red in an attempt to heal the hero, but to no avail. This only worried Gi further... did it mean that because a Ra-Seru could not work without a functioning human body, that he was...?

No. Vahn was twitching in extreme discomfort and pain, and every now and then he would cough and audibly bite back that which plagued him. The Delilas boy had this look on his face, with his stained palms upwards and extending, and the storm of things in his expressive eyes... that just cried, "I've murdered an angel."

But the angel refused to let go of life like that and keep his loyal word... even if it was the last breath he would ever waste. It was just one attack, but like Gi's own loyal word -- he was an expert at dealing fatal blows. So he gathered his energy into a small ball, and lifted his head up just so that gazes of pain and agony could meet. "I told you... I'm sorry for bleeding all over you..." And something in those words just made him snap, with a worried sob of sorts that echoed throughout the entire cavern. He dropped his weapon and paid no mind to the sharp sound of metal against stone, and took a knee by the fallen one.

Tears were congregating slowly from either corner of his eyes, then blazed trails down his cheeks with speed not demonstrated seconds before. His arms made sure to avoid the wounds as he turned Vahn over onto his back and cradled his head in his own lap. The image of a fallen angel was one that nobody, no matter how cold they were, could ignore without tearful sympathy.

"Vahn, I... I'm so sorry," he whispered, emotions clogging his airways and strangling his voice. "It's me... I'm here. That bitch, she... I... I'm just so sorry... forgive me..."

There was a struggle for air in both, and Vahn opened his eyes. Tieg only knew how much it hurt as well to see Gi crying... had he the strength he would have sat up and fully embraced him. He wasn't quite sure if he was crying from his own pain or from that of his lover... "It... isn't your fault, I forgive you" he whispered in return, but his voice was so weak that it was barely there.

Gi stood up with Vahn limp in his grasp, and pressed his own warm cheek down to the other's to recover the warmth he could feel leaving him.

Leaving him...

He could barely stand to say it or even associate the two thoughts. It sounded selfish, but right now he didn't care about his siblings too much. Warmth battled frost on two levels of skin, as he planted a kiss on Vahn's forehead that was far too gentle and loving in its deliverance to be believed done by him.

"Don't leave me, please..."

His head was bowed and they disappeared into darkness, then light. A haunted feel overcame the remaining four people as a voice waltzed with a mysterious mountain wind that entered. "I love you..."


This is so sappy I can't believe I'm the one writing it. ;_; WAAAAAH~ I'm so busy with all these other fics that I really should start on the next chapter soon so I don't wait another three months.