Guest: No, this isn't meant to be the same Rei from the Hidden Origins story. It was an initial draft of Rei that I had planned, but in the end, I've decided that it'll be a completely separate story.

It was happening all around me.

After Noel's grandmother died, him, me, and Yeul all went to live with Natarle's family.

The adults were all getting sick. I guess the older that we got, the weaker that we got. I saw the nice chocobo breeder fall dead, his chocobo kweh-ing beside him as though it didn't understand why he wasn't getting back up. I saw Araea fighting her illness, insisting that she was getting better and she could power through, but she went on a hunt with her husband and neither ever returned. I saw James from the forge get weaker and weaker, forging day and night to try and distract himself, assuring us that he was fine.

I stayed with him one night and he grunted, lifting his large forging hammer and bringing it down, but he couldn't lift it again. "I'm just…to frail for this world," He had said.

I had seen it in his eyes. He had given up.

When he passed away, Rigo had taken up the job as the new forge. Once he had wielded a new weapon each week, all having been made by himself. Now, whenever he joined us on hunts, he wielded only one weapon - James's forging hammer. The weapon that had created so many others.

We still tried to smile. We laughed on hunts together that got our blood pumping, the danger the only thing that was able to give us excitement in this world.

Once, we faced a Behemoth and - well, many times we've faced Behemoths, but the most recent case had me smiling every time I thought about it. Noel and I had the advantage of rapid attacks and mobility, Yanny and Rigo had brute strength and hard-hitting attacks, and Natarle had ranged bow-and-arrow attacks. We were a great team that could survive anything, and as we got older, we got stronger. I was almost 17 now, Noel nearly 16, and Yeul's 13th birthday was coming up soon. We were still growing, both with our natural growth and with our extra muscle mass and fighting techniques.

"I got this!" Rigo had called, running up to the Behemoth, but because of his need to be right in front of his enemy to strike (having a short ranged weapon), the monster easily swiped at him before he could do so and sent him flying back.

"You got what now?" I called.

Rigo grumbled and dug himself out of the crystal sand. It had gotten all over his hair and he would later complain about having crystal dust everywhere - in his shirt, his pants, his shoes, and everywhere that you didn't want to know about.

Being away from the village on hunts was some of the only solace I had. When we got home, I was reminded constantly that our days were numbered. Natarle's aunt got sick, and my father once again tended to another person who would inevitably die. There just weren't any ways to help except to make their final days more comfortable. We didn't have any plants for medicine, we didn't have much water or any food besides what we could find each day. When Natarle's aunt passed away, the only adults left were my father and Caius, the Guardian of Yeul.

My father tried to hide it, but he was sick. Soon, it wasn't long before he stopped trying to hide it.

"Papa?" I asked one night.

"I'm sorry, Rei. I tried."

I nodded, remembering my vision. "Papa, go to bed. Be comfortable."

He sighed and nodded, standing from his chair and moving to the bed. He was so thin and pale, so weak. I sat next to him, taking his hand and trying not to cry. The moment I cried, I knew that he would be gone.

"Tell Susu I say 'Hi,'" I muttered, my eyes watering.

He smiled. "Asushunamir would be so happy, so proud if she could see you now. She'd be bawling if she could see me like this, though. And your sister…she was so bright and wonderful. I know you two would've been the best of friends as well as siblings. I wonder what she would've looked like if she had grown up here."

"She would've chewed out Yanny and Rigo whenever they got all sassy. She might've liked Noel. And Yeul. She would've been so protective of Yeul, just like the rest of us. She would've been best friends with Natarle, we'd all complain about the boys together. And she would've always remained hopeful."

"Just like you."

I shook my head. "I'm just trying to fill in for her. I could never be her though."

"No. You can only be you. And I'm satisfied having you."

"But I want Susu and sis back with us too."

Dad readjusted on his bed. He stared up at the ceiling in deep thought. "Your mother was so perfect. The moment I first met her, I couldn't stop staring. We'd been staring at each other for ages before I finally got the courage to go up and speak to her. Turns out, she was just as nervous about me as I was her. She stuttered and squeaked and stared at me too."

I smiled and started crying at the idea of my parents' first meeting.

"She…she complimented my sword and then…then I started rambling about it. I was so afraid she'd be dissuaded by my constant talking, but…but she somehow wasn't. Then she survived your sister's birth and…and she was so wonderful that I sometimes forgot that this world was dying. I could look at her and think that the world was full of color and life. And then she was pregnant a second time with you and I was so worried that I'd…I'd killed her. But she lived. As if I couldn't love her more, she lived. She did it. She gave me you and your sister and we were together for a few years."

He continued rambling on as he got more and more tired. His voice became dry, his breaths became shallow, he closed his eyes as he continued talking. It was only when he fell asleep that I cried again. I felt his pulse as it slowed and disappeared. I was the one to bury him two days later.

I carved away at the stone, writing my message before putting the tombstone on the grave. The carving of a tombstone with the lack of proper tools was a tiring task, but the effort distracted me, if just for a few seconds, from the pain in my chest.

"It's perfect."

I jumped and saw Yanny behind me with a wreath of beads. He had made a ceremonial necklace, setting it in front of the tombstone.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

He chuckled lightly. "Well, it occurred to me that I never asked you father for…permission."

"It never came up," I agreed. "I didn't mean to not tell him about us. It just never seemed important. I forgot about it. I guess we can tell him now. He's raised me for nearly thirteen years now. Alone. He deserves it. Even if it doesn't really mean much in the long run."

Yanny let out a deep sigh. "Okay, here goes." He held out a small old box. "Mr. Charon, I'd like permission to marry your daughter."

I nearly fell over. "What?"

Yanny sighed and handed over the box to me. "I wanted to ask him sooner, I did. But I just kept putting it off, telling myself 'I'll do it tomorrow.' Turns out, that plan doesn't always work."

I opened the small box and found a small necklace of beads, a larger pendant in the middle that signified marriage in our little community. My dad had always worn my mom's as a bracelet. I felt my eyes watering and turned away to wipe the tears away.

"You…you can't just do that," I sniffled. "You can't just spring that on me while…while I'm all emotional like this."

"So…that's a no?"

"It's a yes you idiot, but you could've chosen a better time."

He chuckled lightly. "Sorry. Guess I realized that our time is limited. Don't have a lot of time left to wait."

I leaned against him as I sniffled, trying to contain my tears and snot. I was so elegant. "He's really gone. They're…it's all disappearing."

He hugged me tightly. "I know, Rei. I know."

"This is wonderful! We haven't had a wedding in so long!"

"It's not gonna be anything big, Natarle. Don't overreact."

"Overreact? Me? Nooooo! Never!"

I sighed. "It's not like we can really do anything fancy. The village doesn't have that many resources."

"Oh, hush. I'm going to make this the best wedding in history!" She saw my expression and seemed to realize that she needed to cool it just a little bit. "Okay, how about this? You need a reason to smile, we all do. You finally ended up with Yanny! Took you two long enough. Now you're gonna get married and have a nice little wedding with the rest of us, giving us a reason to celebrate rather than to mourn. Noel and Rigo and probably talking to Yanny right now about this. How do you think boys react to stuff like this?"

I shrugged, imagining Rigo and Noel trying to give Yanny some advice and Yanny ignoring it completely to do his own thing. It was a miracle that the boys got anything done. Heck, I wouldn't have been surprised if Yanny had somehow managed to trick Noel into proposing for him.

"See, there's that smile," Natarle gleamed. "Now, come on. We've gotta find you a fancy outfit. I think we can muster something up."

She dug through our shared closet for the best things that we had. After we had all moved in with Natarle, the girls and the boys had shared a room - minus Yeul, who had her own room despite being the youngest with Caius there as her eternal Guardian always there for being there's sake.

"Ooo! I think this will go brilliantly with…" She coughed. "With your necklace. And we can make you a diadem! It would be beautiful! And we can deck you out in ceremonial beads and-" *cough* "-and I can go to the dunes for some untouched crystal sand. We'll make you sparkle like a diamond, girl!"

I was happy that Natarle was so excited, but something seemed off about her. She was masking the fear, I had always known that. She was hiding the pain of her family being lost, she was hiding the fear of the next person that passed away. And I began to suspect she was hiding even more than that. Her hands were shaking just slightly, her skin looked just a little paler. As she was helping me into the fanciest hunter's outfit we could find, I felt her leaning on my gently for support as though she could barely keep on her feet.

I suddenly surged forward to hug her.

"Rei? Rei, honey, what's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry," I choked.

She held out for only a moment before sighing and wrapping her arms around me to return the hug. "It's okay, little sis. I'll be joining the goddess. I'll tell your dad about your wedding, how beautiful you looked. I'll meet your mom and your sister."

"You were always like a sister to me."

"And you for I. I know I can't be Hotaru, but I hope that I've done a good enough job."

"You're not Hotaru. You're Natarle. And that's all I ever needed you to be."

She gently released me. "Come on, Rei. I can't tell your fam how good you look at the wedding unless we actually get to the wedding part."

I mustered a smile and nodded.

She brushed the hair out of my face in a motherly way. "You should take the chance to be happy while you can. Every second could be your last."

"I do not like her!"

"Yes you do," Noel, Yanny, and I all said in unison.

"Why are you all ganging up on me like this?!" Rigo demanded.

"Because I was man enough to get married, and now it's your turn," Yanny said.

"I'm not getting married to anyone!"

"Come on, Rigo, it's kind of obvious," Noel said.

"It's either Natarle or Noel, so make up your mind, Rigo," I demanded.

"What? Why me?" Noel interjected.

"Because Yeul's a seeress and she's off limits. Come on, there's nothing stopping you right now! Go on! Nat can't be left waiting forever!"

"I don't like Natarle like that! Now would you all just shut up and get off my back!"

There was silence.

"She's right behind me, isn't she?"

Natarle was standing calmly, holding a couple of strips of leather on her arms. "Hey, Rei. I have some leather from a new Behemoth that Caius killed. Check it out, it's made of blue and red hues. They're…they're unique. Yeul said that…she wanted to give you a present but she didn't know what, so Caius…" She looked around at them, all staring at her, and then turned away. "I'll be back at the house."

"Nat…" Rigo began.

"Look, I'll see you later. Rei, come by so I can show you the new materials."

"Sure, sure," I said.

With that, she walked off.

"Oh, you look perfect! Yanny won't know what hit him."

"Thanks, Natarle."

"No prob. This is the most fun I've had in ages. Finally, I get to put my weaving skills to the test."

I hesitated. "You know Rigo didn't mean it. He was just saving face with all our taunting."

"It doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"Well, it should. We know you two like each other and we just want you to be happy. You said that I should take every chance to be happy that I can get, that I should savor every second. You should take your own advice. You and Rigo have been dancing around each other for ages now and you need to get a move on with it, now more than ever."

She sighed. "I get it, Rei. But…what's the point of letting myself be happy for so short a time if I'm going to lose it all so soon? It'll just make me more regretful and sad when I die. I'll be in even more pain than before."

"You'll be in pain from missing out on your chance at ever doing what your heart says. You'll be sad, but a good kind of sad, you know? You'll be doing what will make you happy, and you'll have nothing to regret, right?"

She shrugged. "I suppose? I…I'm just…scared. I have to make my decision and I have to make it now. Either way, I'm going to face regret."

"Regretting what you haven't done rather than regretting what you have seems worse to me. You've got nothing better to do if you're gonna just sit around moping, so go on and get him, Nat."

She smiled gently. "I get it. Thanks."

"We should've gotten a new sword for her."

"She loves her swords, you really think that she'd want a new one?"

Rigo thought. "I mean what are you suppose to get girls on their wedding days?"

Noel shrugged. "I got a wolf so that we could have a proper feast, and I hear Natarle's making a special dessert from Gorgonzola goo."

"Ugh! I feel like such a failure~!" Rigo whined, putting his hands to his face.

"What if you finally get together with Natarle?"

"Why are you all so adamant about this?"

"Because Rei's doing what none of us thought that we could ever have: getting married. You never know how much time you have left in this world, and you and Natarle belong together, it's obvious."

Rigo looked up to the tall mountains of crystal dust. "I'll think about it, Noel."

"What if I stumble on my lines? What am I even supposed to say?"

"Rei, breathe!" Natarle urged. "You're gonna do fine. All you have to do is repeat what I say. I'll go slowly, I promise."

"You look great, Rei," Yeul said.

Rei sighed. "Thanks, girls. You look great yourself, Yeul. I couldn't imagine a better flower girl."

"Hey, you coming or running?" Noel called from outside.

"Shut up, Noel," Rei hissed. "I'll be there in a second."

"See you out there," Natarle waved.

She headed out while Yeul added another flower to Rei's hair - one of her favorite flowers that were rare. It was a simple white flower among all of the purple ones that Natarle had gone to extra lengths to make, mimicking the description of flowers that she'd been given.

"I know you'll be fine, Rei," she said. "No matter if you stumble on your words or trip over your dress, he won't love you any less."

I smiled with a chuckled. I knew she was right. No matter how hard I failed, it wouldn't make Yanny suddenly change his mind. If anything, it'd make him love me more. He was like that. He liked to know we were human, that we could laugh. It was almost overwhelming, thinking about this. In the end, nothing much would change. Marriage these days was a title, little more, and I wasn't sure if having children would be a good idea. At most, Yanny would lose his wife in return for a child. At the worst, he would lose his wife with no payback. We were the last humans in existence. But that didn't mean we couldn't enjoy a wedding.

I followed Yeul out of the crumbling building and out to the main square where Natarle had decorated the place for the wedding, laying out some thin hide to make an aisle of sorts. Noel and Rigo stood on either side of Yanny and Natarle. Yanny was fiddling with the bow Natarle had made, and I sighed when I realized he was just as nervous as I was. If he'd been calm and collected, I might've felt inferior to him, and I might have actually run. Caius was acting as a security guard, having cleared the village of monsters.

I barely remember the walk up, just staring at Yanny, asking him with my eyes whether or not we were really doing this. He told me that were, just by smiling back. Natarle told me what I needed to say, then told Yanny to repeat her after that. Then we were to say what we wanted.

"Rei, thank you for always keeping our spirits high. If it weren't for you and our dumb rivalry, I think I would've given up a long time ago - I think all of us would have. You're the best friend I've ever had, and if you'd never come to this village, none of us would be here, this would've never happened. I don't know how much time we have left, but I promise that I'll be by your side for it all and will try to repay you for all the love you've given me."

"Thank you, Yanny. For being there when I needed you most, for stopping me from giving up just when I'd started to falter. To tell you the truth, that rivalry, this fight for survival, it pushed me even harder to remain positive. Helping the rest of you ended up helping me. We've hated each other before, but in the end, we always had each other's back. I'm glad that I met you, Yanny. Through all the heartache and sorrow, you're my light keeping me afloat."

Natarle nodded, and all of us crossed our hands over our chests and spoke together. "'Never give up, for the goddess Etro watches always, and helps those who help themselves.'"

"I proudly declare you married, husband and wife. Okay, you can kiss now."

We laughed at her informal tone, but shrugged and leaned in anyway. Yanny kissed me like he never had before, and I felt him promising over and over that this wasn't the end, that he was always going to be there. I hoped that I was reciprocating the same message, but also one that told him I didn't need him to promise me that. I already knew.

"Food time!" Rigo announced.

We all laughed but agreed as Natarle rushed into one of the houses to bring out the food she'd prepared, acknowledging Noel's contribution of retrieving the ingredients the hard way from monsters. We applauded Noel's improving hunting skills while eating and chatting with more enthusiasm than we'd had in ages. Yeul gave us a tapestry depicting the two of us together at the wedding, and though everyone wasn't in the exact positions, Yeul had done an amazing job for a preemptive guess at what the ceremony would look like.

"I…I sorta got you something," Rigo volunteered.

"Oh, Rigo, you didn't have to," I said. "I know there's not a lot left in this world, and we're really just glad you're here with us."

"I know, but…well, I might as well."

He stood from the table we were all around (except Caius, he was standing guard at the door) and walked over to Natarle. "Rigo, what-?"

He leaned down and kissed her mid-sentence. Noel fell off the bench in surprise; I grabbed Yanny's arm and punched him to ask if he was seeing what I was seeing; Yanny just froze and swatted at my fist that had punched him; and Yeul started clapping and cheering in her soft voice, "Yay! Congratulations!"

Natarle stared at him in shock, and I held my breath watching Rigo's nervous and hopeful expression.

Then, Natarle stood and ran. "I'm sorry, I can't…"

She hurried past Caius at the door, leaving Rigo heartbroken.

"Natarle. Natarle!"

She stopped at the edge of town, knowing that she couldn't go any further without being armed, and it wasn't recommended to go out of the village alone anyway. When I caught up to her, I heard her sobbing and quickly moved to hug her.

"I can't do it, Rei, I can't!"

"Shh, breathe Nat."

It took many more minutes before she was able to regain control of herself. I didn't want to ask her, I didn't want to push her, but I could tell that she wanted an excuse to explain, that she needed to explain to someone or else she'd never forgive herself.

"Why, Nat?"

"I can't do it. I can't do it to him…"

She broke out into a fit of coughs, and I eased her to the crystal sand below us so that she could sit down. She doubled over, her hand over her mouth, and I finally realized what she meant.

"Your sickness…"

She pulled her hand away to reveal blood as she wheezed and tried to steady her breathing again. "I can't do it…"

"Oh, Natarle…" I wrapped my arms around her tightly. "You don't wanna miss him, you don't want him to miss you."

"I don't want to say goodbye…"

She didn't want to have something to miss when she died. She thought she was prepared for the end, she had her friends and she was satisfied with their lives to the point that she was okay with leaving. She was going to die happy.

But if she allowed herself to love Rigo, especially so close to her death, then that would give her something that she wasn't okay with leaving behind. It would leave Rigo heartbroken and angry, and she didn't want that. She didn't want to be responsible for all that misery.

"I wish it'd never happened," she sobbed.

"What? The kiss or the love itself?"

"Everything!"

I didn't respond, simply hugging her tighter.

"I'm sorry, Rei," Natarle sobbed. "I ruined your wedding day."

"I'm the one who's sorry, Nat."

She sniffled. "Why? You have nothing to be sorry about. It's not your fault the world is like this."

I couldn't help but wonder. This power that I had, those visions that I saw, maybe I was given them for a reason. What if I could use this knowledge? The law of the Farseers said that the seeress couldn't interfere with her visions because it could risk thousands of lives, warp the timeline as it tried to fix the distortion. But there weren't thousands of people left. There was only us, me, Nat, Rigo, Yanny, Noel, Yeul, and Caius. We were all that was left. This was my family. What did I have left to lose if things were destroyed?

Maybe I could figure out how to fix this. Maybe I could learn to harness this power. And maybe I could save the human race.

"Rigo!"

"I don't wanna hear it!" he spat.

Yanny and Noel exchanged worried glances.

Yanny pushed Noel forward. "Go on. You're better at this stuff than I am."

Noel rolled his eyes. "Always making me do the dirty work…"

Noel sighed and walked over to Rigo's bed, sitting beside him as he laid facing the wall.

"Rigo, I'm sorry. We didn't know she'd act that way."

"After all of your pushing and prodding, telling me that I should go for it, that I didn't have a lot of time left," Rigo hissed. "All of it, getting my hopes up, making me think I actually had a chance…"

"Look, Rigo…you've always been impulsive, diving head-first into trouble. I've never seen you hold back, I've never seen you think too hard about something before doing it so long as you believed it was the right thing to do. You've saved our lives with that lack of hesitation. I owe you more than I can ever repay. Nat was the only thing that made you slow down and think."

"And look where it got me."

"She matters to you, Rigo. You can't give up on her like that."

"She made her position on the matter clear."

The anger from Rigo's voice had vanished, leaving only his sorrow. Noel stared at the floor, caked with crystal sand from outside. With all this misery and death in the world, the only thing they had left was each other. A thought occurred to Noel, and suddenly everything seemed to make sense.

"You don't know, do you? About Nat?"

Rigo hesitated. "What about her?"

"She got that sickness from her aunt. She…she doesn't have a lot of time left. She must've done what she did…because she didn't want to get your hopes up only for her to die."

Rigo sat up, turning to face Noel. "She's been sick? For how long?!"

Noel shook his head. "I don't know. But she's been getting weaker for a while now. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

Rigo didn't say anything. He simply jumped off his bed, grabbed his forging hammer, and sprinted out the door, pushing past Yanny, and running in the direction Natarle had run. He ran to Natarle without a plan on what he was going to say, what he was going to do, what was going to happen afterwards. He didn't think about the consequences, he didn't think about the possibility of failure. He just ran to her because he didn't want to let her go - because he wasn't going to waste another second hesitating because of her.

"There's the Rigo I know," Noel muttered.

"We should head back," Natarle announced.

"Are you sure?" I asked worriedly.

"The pain's gone down. Better to start moving before it flares up again."

I nodded, working to help Natarle to her feet, but that's when the tremors started.

"Do you feel that?" I asked.

Natarle held still, and a moment later, she raised her head, her eyes wide in panic. "Adamantoise."

"This close to the village?!"

"Just go, Rei. Go!"

We hobbled forward, feeling the steps of the large creature growing closer and closer, causing the tremors to grow stronger and stronger.

"Natarle!"

"Rigo! Go back! Go-!"

She broke into a fit of coughing from her shouting. He would've ignored her warning anyway, but when he saw her in pain, he sprinted forward even faster.

"Natarle, are you okay?"

She tried to shake him away and point towards the village, but she fell forward into his arms.

"It's an Adamantoise, Rigo!" I informed him. "We need to go, now!"

"Even if we make it to the village, it'll be crushed!"

"Not if it threatens Yeul. If it threatens Yeul's life and she isn't destined to die, Caius can stop it."

Rigo looked up and in the distance, he could see the creature stomping their way over the crystal sand. "Rei, take Natarle and go."

"What?! No! No, we're not leaving you!"

He drew the forging hammer from his back, having grabbed it in preparation for going outside the village. At least he was smart about that, unlike me or Nat.

"I'll hold it off so you can get Nat to the village. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you! Now go! She needs to get back there!"

"No, Rei…" Natarle begged, her voice raspy and barely coming out. "Don't…don't leave…"

I looked to Rigo, the Adamantoise, and to the weakened Natarle. I wanted to scream in frustration. I had seen Natarle dying in a bed with Rigo at her side. That meant that if I brought her back to the village, she was sure to die. But it gave me a chance to stop Rigo from leaving, from arguing with Noel, from…No. Even if I saved Rigo, he wouldn't want to go on without Natarle. But if we all stayed here, we'd all surely die anyway.

I grabbed Natarle and pulled her forward, and she had too little strength left to properly protest. We hurried to the village as fast as we could, hearing Rigo's battle cry behind us. Natarle started to sob in my arms, but I pushed forward, passing the buildings that came together to create a sort of funnel at the end of the village.

"He won't…he won't come back…to us," Natarle sobbed. "Please, Rei…go back for him! Please!"

"Rei! Nat!"

Yanny and Noel came running up with Yeul hurrying behind them and Caius following her.

"Where's Rigo?" Yanny demanded. "We felt the tremors. Is it-?"

"Adamantoise," I confirmed.

"Go back for him!" Natarle screamed, her voice raspy and cracking.

Noel grabbed his swords off his back. "Come on! The idiot's gonna get himself killed!"

Yanny ran over to his house, grabbing his sword from the doorway, and ran after Noel out to the edge of the village.

"Yeul, can you look after her?"

Yeul nodded firmly. "Go. I'll keep her safe."

I nodded, hurrying to my house and grabbing my swords. Luckily Natarle was an expert seamstress, and so all of the clothes that she had made for the wedding were both stylish and mobile - I could fight completely fine in the outfit. I hurried after Noel and Yanny, who were just ahead of me as we raced to Rigo's rescue.

I sighed as I treated Rigo's wounds. Luckily he didn't seem to have a concussion.

Rigo hadn't died from the Adamantoise, we had made sure of that, but the Adamantoise hadn't fallen either. We had barely managed to change its course and save Rigo, but he had taken a hit or two and we'd found him knocked out in the crystal sand.

"That was foolish of you, Rigo," I told him as he slept. "But at least you're still with us."

The same could barely be said for Natarle. Yeul had done all she could, but Natarle was dying and there was nothing we could do but make the rest of her stay as comfortable as possible.

When Rigo woke, I pointed him towards Natarle's bed where she was sleeping, and prepared myself for the coming sorrow.

"I'm sorry…Rigo…" Natarle wheezed.

"Don't apologize. You had your reasons."

"That didn't…make it ri…right."

"Shh. Save your strength. What's done is done, and I forgive you. As long as you know…no matter what, no matter how you reacted, I just wanted you to know how I feel. Maybe it was obvious to the others, maybe it was obvious to you, but…I just needed to say it. I love you and there's nothing you can do about it. No matter how much it's going to hurt me, no matter how much it's going to hurt you, I want it out there."

Her eyes watered and she reached out to take his hand. He gripped hers tightly, even if her own grip was weak. She was extremely pale and weak, but she was smiling.

"Let me do it right this time," she said.

"Do what?"

"Respond to your confession."

He nodded and leaned down to be face to face with her, up close. He gave her a weak smile before he kissed her. Her lips were chapped, but he didn't care much. He felt her gently kissing him back, and kissed her properly - better than his first, sloppy and rushed attempt. When he pulled back, he sat up and opened his eyes. He expected to see her gentle smile, he wanted to hear what he knew she wanted to say. He saw the smile. He never got to hear her words.

"Nat?"

He shook her shoulder.

"Natarle?"

He didn't want to, but he moved his fingers to her neck and tried to feel for a pulse. He moved his fingers around, trying to locate a pulse frantically. Finally, knowing that he might just be bad at seeking out the vague location of a pulse, he put his finger to her nose to feel for her breathing. He still couldn't find anything.

"No. No…no, you still haven't told me, Nat. Nat! Natarle!"

She didn't respond. She had done what she had dreaded for so long. She had never told him, he never heard the words she had wanted to say but was afraid to. When she had finally been willing to speak, that's when her words had failed her. Her final chance was lost, there would be no more. In the end, it had been her fear and hesitation that had caused the very scenario she had dreaded.

It was all over.

She was gone, and Rigo had never heard her words.

"Rigo, you can't go after that thing alone! You're gonna get yourself killed! You think that's what Natarle would want from you?!"

"Get out of my way, Noel! I mean it!"

"No! You are not going to face that Adamantoise alone! We barely managed to drive it off all together last time, and Rei and Yanny are still asleep! Even if we woke them up, we can fend off those things, we can't defeat them. So you're not going alone!"

I didn't want to hear what I heard, but I did. The argument.

"Rigo…maybe you shouldn't go," I called, coming out from the building Yanny and I shared. "You're strong, but…that thing's pretty big."

"Where's this coming from, Rei? You're supposed to support me! You're always behind me with stuff like this. We've always run head first into danger together!"

"I know, but Rigo…! You…what if you actually die?"

"I won't."

"Well how would you know?! You're always so careless and it was fine when we were children but we're not children anymore!"

Rigo scoffed. "Marriage has made you soft."

I shook my head. "It wasn't marriage. It was Natarle."

His reaction was tiny, but it was there.

"Even when facing her death, her greatest concern was you. She wanted to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid once she died, and so she didn't want to give you any false hope. She wanted to die like everyone else in the village, she wanted us to not mourn her and move on and live. She knew that you'd go and get yourself killed out of grief, so I'm saying right now that I'm not going to let you!"

Rigo glared, but Noel crossed his arms firmly. "Then that's that. You're not going to fight and die from an Adamantoise."

"Screw you, Noel," he muttered before heading back to his house.

Once Rigo went inside, Noel let out a sigh of relief. For the second youngest of us, he was pretty mature. Besides the special case of Yeul, he was the last child to have been born probably in the entire world. This village was all that was left of the entire world, and every time someone died, he felt their hopes weighing him down. Now that Natarle was gone, he must've felt that all the people who had put their hopes in her had passed the burden down to him.

"Thanks for that," he said with his warming smile.

I nodded. "I'll keep an eye on him. I have a feeling he'd slip right under your radar and go anyway."

"Careful. Yanny will get jealous at this rate."

I snickered. "Well tell him that we're all moving to one house. I don't like living without you guys. We don't have Natarle, but that doesn't mean we're not still a family."

Noel nodded. "I'll get him up."

He hurried off, and I made my way after Rigo. He was still in the house, luckily, sulking in his defeat. But he was alive. I'd saved him. Now to Yanny, but that was already half solved since a part of the reason he left was that he was mourning Rigo and Natarle together. I couldn't save Natarle, but I had to save the boys. For her sake.

I walked into the hut, but suddenly I felt a familiar sting in my head as my vision became blurry. I lost all feeling to my body, but I focused and made sure that I stayed standing up.

A monster, enormous, loud and roaring. It only had one arm, it broke through a rift but only half its torso would fit. It roared and swiped its large hand.

"You can't beat it!"

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Rigo demanded. "Leave? Where else can we go? What if it can teleport and follow us? What then?!"

"We can't leave our home," Yanny said more gently. He gently cupped my face. "Don't worry, love. We can do it, but we can't win without your help. So will you be by our side?"

When the monster died, it opened a rift that sucked them in. I was left alone.

The scene shifted to Yeul collapsed in Noel's arms.

"It's strange. I knew all along this day was coming. But…I'm still not ready…to say good-bye. I wish we could stay together. I'll miss you, Noel."

"You don't have to cry. We will meet again."

Each time a seeress sees a vision of the future, she loses a piece of her life. She dies while she is still young. That is the price to be paid…for Etro's gift.

I had seen a few visions ever since my first one, and I'd learned a little about how they worked. The visions only lasted about a split second in the real world, no matter how much or how little I saw, but they started to become more and more painful and draining each time. Where the first one I didn't feel any pain at all, I started to feel a slight prick, like a needle in my brain, and then once it was over I felt like I had just sprinted for a few seconds - winded, but not in too much pain. Then it got worse each time. The needles, the fatigue afterwards.

This time, when I came out of it, I felt like I'd been hit with a mental battering ram and my limbs felt like jelly. Though I'd managed to stay standing, I quickly collapsed from the fatigue and saw spots in my eyes to show I was about to pass out.

No. No, I couldn't let them both die.

Outside, there was a loud roar and a crashing. The wind howled, crystal dust went flying. It was already here.

"Rei."

I gasped as I sat up in bed to find Noel sitting above me.

"Noel? What happened? How did-?"

He took my shoulder to try and hold me in place. "Rei, listen to me. You have to stay calm."

I didn't hear Noel's words as he explained what happened. I didn't want to hear them. I didn't want to believe them.

No…

It happened so fast. I was out of time. They couldn't be gone just like that, they couldn't be! Yanny…

"Yanny!"

I had run out into the village square and shouted his name. I felt a slight discomforting hum where the rift had opened, where the monster had appeared, and where it had taken my friend and my husband. It had taken them because I had tried to save them. Noel didn't try to stop me as I tried to find him, as I ran around screaming his name in a futile attempt to bring him back.

"Yanny! Yanny!"

He didn't say anything as he walked over to where I'd collapsed sobbing. He simply held me tightly as I begged to whatever higher power thought that this was what the human race deserved. It wasn't what Rigo deserved. It wasn't what Natarle deserved. It wasn't what James or Aranea or Noel's grandmother or my father and mother and sister deserved.

It wasn't what Yanny deserved.

"I love you…please come back to me, please…give him back! Give him back, you hear me?!"

Goodbyes in this world aren't always dramatic and dragged out and loving. For me, I said goodbye to Yanny by getting knocked out and never even seeing his last moments. That's how unfair this world was, that's how useless I was.

That's how I became one of the last four people in existence.

I'm Rei Fang of the village of Paddra, and this is how the end of my story began.

This is not the end, my dear readers (if you're out there). Stay tuned for a final chapter.