Kay, so I either did a wonderful job with this chapter or I failed miserably. Not much to say really, not yet, at least.

Oh yes, before I forget... Ilu Bizz.

Now you can read!

Chapter 14: Alone

Nothing stirred, nothing moved, nothing lived. Everything was gone; even silence had abandoned the place, leaving nothing but bored emptiness, sitting and whiling away the hours, waiting for something to happen to fill its always endless void. Stones were pressing down everywhere, on every possible surface, in every possible direction.

The first thing they noticed upon living again was the pressure, the bearing, unceasing pressure of stone upon stone standing on top of them. They coughed, the little air available thick with floating bits of rock jarred loose from the larger stones. They tried to rise from their inert sleeping position, but something to their right spoke to them silently, sending a clear message of pain that stopped the feeble movement as soon as it began.

They heard the silence all around them, surrounding the place like a thick, impenetrable veil. The quiet scared them; there should have been noise, right? When something lived, they made every noise that one could make, and yet…

Nothing.

They could never say how long they had waited there under the rocks, waiting for some sort of noise to tell them that they were truly alive, that they weren't just lost in some eerily hard void between the world of the living and that of the dead. After all, the entire cave had exploded, hadn't it? Who could survive that? To the lone person trapped under the rock, not knowing whether they were dead or not, it seemed all but impossible that they could be alive.

Yes, they were dead, they decided, and they may be trapped in this strange, dark place for all of eternity. Though that thought scared them a bit, it made them feel better, in a way, to know that they wouldn't have to worry about such trivial things—such as the state of their existence—anymore. Oh yes, the pain would be gone too, fear as well, any sort of worry, really, no longer mattered to them now that they were floating in a dull space that wasn't really there anyway.

But… if they were to be spending the entirety of the unknowable amount of time they had left before they disappeared forever in this place, they felt that it would be better, to be sure, if they were in a bit more comfortable a position.

Again, their right side prodded them without a word, but at the same time with a word, not that the person hearing said word cared much. The only thing they cared about—which was something they thought they wouldn't have to do anymore anyway—was they were feeling something that dead people weren't supposed to feel at all—not that the dead felt anything though.

Pain.

Didn't the dead one who really isn't dead to begin with decide that they could no longer feel pain? And why was the not-so-dead-one making decisions at all? Perhaps they had been wrong in their previous assessment was, perhaps… perhaps they weren't dead after all.

They were thinking, weren't they? They were deciding, weren't they? Pain and worry hadn't abandoned them yet either, had they? All these things the dead couldn't do, they were doing. Dead people don't do much of anything except not thinking about what they can and cannot do and other such non-existent things as that when they are in their state of deceasement.

But… alive people didn't belong under earth, dead ones did, and they were most certainly not dead, despite their earlier notions. Their alive ears strained to hear something, anything that could show that someone else had lived through the impossible, and could possibly save them, as their right side found it quite amusing to shout out at them with its word that said nothing but everything all at once every time they moved.

Aggravated as one would be in such a situation, they gave up on freeing themselves and tried to remember exactly what had happened. Their head ached with the effort, but then again, every part of them ached, so their head didn't bother them quite as much as one may think. They remembered the cave, the eerie blue lights floating around… They had been talking to someone, they believed, not long before everything disappeared in a cloud of blinding hot darkness that chilled them to their core.

They needed to remember, though, who they had been with, it was important to them, as they felt that whoever it had been, they might not be alive anymore. They wanted to badly not to forget what could very well have been their last moments with their friends.

There had been two of them.

Yes, that was right, wasn't it? There were two… If only their better side wasn't so very fond of its words that didn't really exist anyway, they would have hit their straining head against something, probably a rock, as they seemed like they would be rather easy to find in a collapsed cave like they just so happened to be in. They had to remember more than just a number, a name, a face, something they said—anything would be better than just remembering them as a number.

Sound from above.

It was soft at first, and they couldn't quite tell if they were imagining it or not, but it was enough to stop their wandering wondering. But it got loud enough for them to distinguish it as a soft snuffing sound. They tried to remember where they had heard such a familiar noise before… but the memories fled from their probing selves, like invisible ghosts did to a light shining through nowhere.

Then, the ground above them shifted, the stones pressing down that much harder, sending a shower of dust into their little cocoon of sharp stones. They coughed—the sand rather fond of the sound—and above, the strange sniffing thing made a sound that the one trapped in the state of dead-but-not-deadness decided was a bark like that from a dog, which reminded them that they had heard one particular person make that same sound not long ago. Well, two actually, but they had known one longer than the other, and one was a different color, and they were both from rather different places, among other such dissimilarities.

Ah, they could remember things like that, yet names and faces completely evaded their searching conscious mind, and it was beginning to get rather annoying. There was a scratching noise, more dust fluttered from the rock above and maybe even from below, though they couldn't really tell which way was up. Another bark, and the scratching came faster, a bit more frantic, if one felt like thinking that way, not that they cared.

And then, the fresh air rushed in, chasing all the dust and dirt away with its wonderful freshness. Their eyes opened—they had almost forgotten how to do so, but it could have been their memories of everything floating away, and not their depth in what they had thought was the land of the dead.

All they saw was dark. More dark than they had seen with their eyes closed, more dark than they had thought could possibly be in one place at one time, more dark than—oh, there was something in the dark, and there was light. Perhaps it wasn't quite so dark after all; perhaps they just liked thinking the word 'dark'—they would never really know.

The thing in the dark was also rather dark itself, and shadow seemed to cling around it in an almost loving way. It was low to the ground, and was panting while still making that odd snuffing sound. One of the beasts paws—the one trapped under the rocks assumed—dug at the place where the right half hadn't spoken for quite a bit. Of course, the touch made the rightness annoyed, and it used its unspoken word once more, but this time, now that their head was free of the oppressing stones, they were able to cry out at their right.

The animal stopped abruptly and took a step back. Suddenly, it was cooler than before, but that only lasted a moment before the one who just found their voice could make out a more human shape and face. They knew who this was, they knew they knew, and no one could tell them that they knew that they didn't know, because they knewwho this was.

You just don't know.

"Are you hurt?" the man who was known yet not known all at once.

The trapped one blinked and coughed before they nodded and tried to sit up. This time, the right didn't poke quite as much, as the rocks were no longer making it uncomfortable.

"Hold on, Mia, your arm is broken." The familiar unknown one said quietly.

Mia blinked again slowly, glancing down at her right side and spitting out a bit of mud. Link bent down and carefully lifted the swordmaster out of what could have been her tomb, being careful not to irritate her already painful injury.

She walked a bit hesitantly at first, her legs not only being asleep but also unused to the uneven, constantly shifting stones she now had to tread upon. There was a thin pathway set between two crags of the shattered rock, the life-giving pathway made by the lethal explosion.

Outside, it was near the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was at its highest point in the sky, watching the few survivors crawl from a hole in the mountain with an invisible smile. Link led Mia through the strange cave made by several monolithic boulders falling in just the right way to leave a triangle of life where all of the survivors so far had come from. The remaining people weren't sure what they would do about the ones that they couldn't find in their little haven, but for now, they were only concerned with getting as many of their own out of this little blessing as they could.

Waiting for Link and Mia in the bright light was Gatrie and Ike, who gently lifted the injured mercenary out of the pit and led her a fair distance away where Laura was searching through her bag for any staves that weren't damaged beyond usage.

She couldn't figure out why it had gotten so bright all of a sudden. It had been dark, the word that was nice to think, and now it was bright, blinding, hot and dry. Still, the names to the faces surrounding her ran away, and she was lost in a sea of swirling sand and heat and dead plants.

There was a young woman with black hair now, talking to the blue-haired man who had brought her here. She knew both of their names, she knew she did. Mia narrowed her eyes and tried to remember, but the two she couldn't identify were talking now, and she found it hard to think with a conversation going on in the background.

"Is she…arm…broken…?" the woman asked, her words fading in an out of Mia's mind.

The man nodded slightly, "…think…head…doesn't…we are, and…said anything."

The dark haired woman turned to Mia, "Mia…hear…?"

Mia struggled to focus her eyes on the one in front of her, but settled for blinking in the brightness around them. The woman sighed and turned back to the man.

"…might…concussion, but…her arm first…do anything…" She turned to the golden brightness behind her, "…you…straightest branch…here? I'm…her…sleep…now…help…"

The man nodded and left the two women alone. The darker haired one reached into the bag next to her and pulled out a small flask. She uncapped it and turned back to Mia. "Alright, I need…lie down…" She sat Mia down and carefully leaned her back until she was on her back on the hot sand, "Yes…! …going…asleep…a while…feel better…wake up."

She opened up the bottle and held it up to Mia's lips, "Not too much now,"

The mercenary's eyes slid closed and Laura sighed. She stood up and wandered in the general direction of the cave entrance, her eyes catching on the cape draped on the ground, covering something they had all hoped they wouldn't find.

Sothe had been one of the first ones taken from the cave, when only Ike, Laura and Shinon had been free, and so far, the only one not to have survived the cave in. Though in the back of her mind, the priest knew that there would be more, she didn't want to believe it. Being a healer, it hurt anytime that someone on her side died, she felt the pain of everyone multiplied several times over, rivaling that of those who had held the dead close to them.

Laura knew that it wasn't just her, though, as Mist, Rhys and Micaiah often felt the same way, but so far, the lone healer was the only one to really grieve over the thief's passing, but when Micaiah came out… Laura sighed, she knew that the priestess of dawn was alive, she just had a feeling, and a holy person's feelings shouldn't be questioned.

She glanced back at the sleeping swordmaster. Mia had several close friends as well, neither of them had been found yet, but there was always a chance that they were still under the rocks, waiting to be found like everyone else. Mia was always such a happy woman, it pained the priest to see her in such an unresponsive state, and she feared what would happen if her two friends didn't make it…

Laura looked around the area once more to change the subject of her mind. The mountain towered to her left, the caves completely flattened beneath them, and the entire northwestern horizon was sand, nothing but sand, tapering back into the rocky peaks towards the east.

Soren walked along the southern mountains, picking up the occasional stone and flicking it away; Shinon was standing near the desert, looking at nothing in particular; Aimee, Jorge, Daniel and Muston all sat in one area of the rocky sand, not saying anything and looking away from everything; Ike was nowhere to be seen, still looking for a branch to brace Mia's broken arm, Laura assumed. Link was inside the cave, using his nose to find more survivors, and Gatrie was outside the pit of death, waiting to bring anyone out. She wasn't sure where Janaff had gone, but the priest wasn't too worried about the Hawk's whereabouts.

Then Gatrie leapt forward—much faster without his heavy blue armor—towards the pit carved deep into the face of the south mountain where another was being spared from the dusty darkness. Laura sighed as she recognized Micaiah's silver hair emerging from the hole—the next few hours were going to be very long.

AVAVAVA

It was dark.

Darkness was everywhere, everything, everyone. She, herself, was darkness. She looked down and saw nothing but the suffocating black that was. She was lost in her own mind, not able to find anything, not able to see anything. She was blind to her memories, but able to see her past clearly. Faces washed by, invisible in the darkness, taunting her, daring her to remember the names.

Pain was all around her, it pressed down everywhere, but she couldn't feel it. Something was wrong, she knew it, she had to do something, anything to get away from the darkness, to chase it away by taking control of her mind again. She couldn't let the black take over; she had to get it away from her, it and the painless fear that came with it everywhere.

She was suffocating in the clear air around her, breathing without moving, living without a heart, dying without a wound. She should have been dead, but she lived. She should have been cold, but the sun warmed her. She shouldn't be trapped in darkness, and yet, it was leaving. It melted away like a fog, warming, brightening.

She could see now, the faces swimming by in the warmth named at last. She knew them all, she remembered them.

The fog went further, further, backing away from nothing, retreating to a void that wasn't there to begin with. Brighter and brighter it got, warmth coming with it at each turn. She was ready now; she was ready to know the names and hear the words and understand the truth…

Mia woke with a start, snapping up from her near comatose sleep. It was dark now, the sun having set long ago, bringing the cold along with it. This reminded her of something, something slipping away like sand through an hourglass. The first thing she noticed after truly coming to consciousness was the dull pain not only in her head, but her right arm as well. Looking down, she saw her pained limb wrapped in rough cloth, a thin branch acting as a brace.

She slowly stood up, her head throbbing a bit at the movement, and looked around carefully. In the distance, there was a fire burning, casting long shadows across the sandy landscape. She noticed, in front of her, another being lying prone on the ground, covered by dark cloth.

Though Mia couldn't quite make out what it was, she didn't really care either, so she continued on her way to the fire. Micaiah and Mist sat next to each other, sharing the same tattered blanket with Laura and Titania next to them, holding their hands up to the fire. Laura was the first to notice Mia's approach, and stood up hastily and ran to her.

"Mia, are you alright?" she asked, her eyes darting between the swordmaster's two injuries.

Mia nodded, "Yeah, I feel a lot better than earlier," her voice was sounded like it hadn't been used in years. The mercenary cocked her head as she remembered something, "Oh, thanks for helping me before."

Laura nodded and motioned for Mia to join the others around the fire, upon sitting down, Mia remembered something else, "Where're the others?"

"Oh, they're in the cave looking for more survivors," Laura explained softly.

Micaiah made noise that sounded as if she were choking, and Mist hushed her softly and wrapped the blanket around them tighter. Mia glanced from the silver haired girl to Laura, the silent question on her mind being answered,

"Sothe died in the explosion," Laura said in a hushed whisper.

So someone's died… Mia had never been all too fond of Sothe, but she couldn't help but feel bad for Micaiah, as she knew how close the two of them had been. Something pricked at the back of Mia's mind, encouraging her to remember something very, very important. She knew she had thought about it before, not too long ago, but it was before she could think clearly.

Zihark and Stefan, remember?

Mia's stomach lurched at the thought, her mind sluggishly kicking back into action, running with the possibilities of what had happened to them. The only thing repeating in her mind the question of the survival of her two friends who she could never bear to be without, while the rest of her conscious self wandered in directions she didn't want to go.

She could almost feel herself getting eaten up inside, question after question begging to be answered, conclusions jumped too and abandoned in an instant. Part of her wanted to know, part of her already knew, and another part feared the knowledge and hid in the innermost parts of her mind.

The words tumbled out of Mia's mouth in a rush before any part of herself could stop it, "Have they… have they found Zihark or Stefan yet?"

Laura stiffened and left a long pause between the question and answer, "No… not yet," the priest said slowly, "But they're still looking."

Mia looked down and tried not to think about what may have happened. She didn't want to think about it, after all the time she spent not being able to put a stable thought together, she almost wished she could go back that way for a bit longer. She didn't want to worry about whether or not the two men who she held so close to her had lived through the disaster. Mia looked at the fire pointedly. There were alive, they had to be—they've lived through worse than a few rocks falling on them. They couldn't be…

Dead.

Mia was never very superstitious, but she couldn't help but feel that merely by thinking that one word, she had set a chain of irreversible events in motion. As if to prove her fleeting thought, there was suddenly a loud crash in the distance, rock smashed against rock, all but drowning out the cries within.

The group around the fire leapt up, with Titania silently lifting one of the branches burning only at one end to light and warm the way to the death pit. Dust was settling peacefully near the sloped mountains while figures staggered awkwardly about, coughing and trying to fan the suffocating air away.

Dead.

The word echoed in Mia's mind as a gust of wind cleared the plumes of dust from the entrance. Mia's eyed scanned the area, settling on each of the wandering men briefly before moving on. Link was shaking sand from his fur; Ike had his arm over his mouth and nose, Shinon cursed loudly and Gatrie laughed as Soren walked toward the fire, mumbling to himself. Mia ran forward, looking for anyone else who had lived, anyone else alive.

The swordmaster knew what had happened without knowing, the always knowledgeable part of her brain that knew everything and left a few hints for the rest of her to decipher. The last of the cave had collapsed, crushing anyone left inside. If Stefan and Zihark weren't out here, then they were…

Dead.

They were dead.

"No…" Mia whispered, still searching though she knew she would find nothing, "Please…"

Suddenly, there was a hand on her good shoulder, "Mia, you alright?" It was Link. He'd shifted back and now looked down at the shaking mercenary with concern.

"Link… Zihark and Stefan… they're still in there…" Mia looked down.

"Oh," Link glanced over at Ike briefly, "I'm sorry, Mia."

"They're still inside, but…" Mia turned to what was left of the death pit, "They could still be…"

She took a few steps towards the shattered stone, mumbling to herself. This had to be some sort of dream, a twisted nightmare, and the only way to wake up was to prove that her two friends were alive and not trapped under countless tons of rock. She would find them herself.

She had to find them. That whole time the three of them had been together, it… it couldn't just end like that, it was impossible. She would see them again; hear them have their ridiculous arguments that neither of them cared about, ponder Zihark's undying love for his long lost Laguz lover, loathe people's unneeded hatred towards Stefan only because of his blood.

The remains of the death pit were spread out in front of her in the darkness, like a open wound in the side of the mountain, cracked and broken rock jutting out from what had been the caves. She slipped to her knees and looked down at the stone underneath her incredulously, her knowing half breathing its knowing voice into her ear.

You'll never see them again.

Never will you protect them in battle, and never will they protect you. You are alone now, silly girl, alone in a faraway place, alone at the time when you need friends the most. Forever more you will be lost in this dry, dead wasteland, longing so fervently for your life before all this, your life when they were still alive.

"Stop it," Mia whispered, holding her hands to cover her ears, "Stop it."

The silent voice laughed, You think you can make this better? You think you can bring the dead to live again? You lie to yourself, child, you yourself are lucky to have lived. You should be dead too. Oh, but you know that, you know your death warrant has been signed already. It is only a matter of time until you get to join your friends again, only a matter of time until you can go home.

"Stop! They're not dead! I'm not alone!" She was shouting now, pulling at the heavy rocks below her, her right side whispering for her to stop the jarring movements.

More laughter echoed in her head, unceasing, unyielding, unforgiving. The rocks under the desperate swordmaster's hand were the same way, refusing to allow their already interrupted rest disturbed again.

And then suddenly, there was someone else there, holding her close to them, reminding her that she was still alive, that she still needed contact from another living being. Mia looked up at Link briefly and took a slow shuddering breath, trying to keep the dark voice from her head.

"It's alright Mia, it's okay," the Hylian whispered gingerly, "I'm so sorry…"

Mia shook silently to herself, able to hear his words, but not understanding them, "They're dead, Link… I'm all alone now, everyone's dead…"

Link shook his head slowly, "You're not alone Mia, the rest of us are still alive. Just calm down, it's going to be okay, I promise."

"I want to go home, I want to go back the way it was before, I want them to still be…" Mia shivered in the cold.

"You need to warm up," Link stood and tried to get Mia to come with him.

"N-no." the swordmaster pulled away and turned her back to the stony, sandy wall behind her, "I want to stay here."

Link sighed and shifted into a wolf and curled his warm black self next to Mia, his head resting sleepily in her lap. She soughed and leaned back against the rock, petting the wolf in front of her, trying not to think of anything, but thinking everything.

Do you understand now? The Voice that was her own whispered, Do you understand that nothing will ever be the way that it was before? Of course you do. I know, and you and I are the same. We will both die here, away from all the places we've loved, the places we've grown up in. You have nothing to live for, child, Stefan and Zihark are dead now, what do you have left?

"Everything," Mia murmured to herself, closing her eyes in weary defeat, "I have everything to live for. They may be gone, but…" She sighed and rubbed being Link's ears, bringing a content yawn from the beast, "They'll always be with me. I'll keep going, I will find who did this, and avenge my friend's deaths. I swear I will."

The lone swordmaster closed her eyes to try and shut everything out, tired of not thinking and thinking about everything and nothing. Mia didn't even realize she had fallen asleep until she jerked awake suddenly. She was stiff from sleeping against cold hard stone, but she could care less about how her body felt at the moment.

Mia stood up and stretched slowly, her mind wandering about in a half-hearted attempt to recall the events from the previous day. As the swordmaster was noticing that her wolven companion was missing, she heard a soft noise behind her and turned to see the blanket that had been around Micaiah and Mist last night crumpled near the stone.

She picked it up hesitantly and looked around. She was alone by the mountains, and she could make out several lumps in a misshapen circle around one small, still smoking pile of charcoal. The air around her was cool, on the brink of cold, and a light blue. Mia started walking towards the huddles, but changed her mind and began walking thoughtlessly up the side of the mountain until she reached a small level place, a mock peak, she thought to herself.

Instinctively, she turned to the east, the mountains much closer now than they had been only a few days previous, but the same shadowy rocks nonetheless. She saw the yellow working its way from beyond the mountains upward, a banner of pure blue dragging behind it.

He knowing mind smirked, "I've never missed a sunrise in my life," Remember? Too bad he didn't live to see this one too, no?

Mia closed her eyes, a single tear falling down each side, "I'm sorry," She whispered, not knowing if anyone could hear her, but not caring either, "Both of you, I'm so sorry…"

"Stefan was always one for the sunrises, wasn't he?" Mia almost jumped at the sudden voice next to her, but settled for opening her eyes and looking at her visitor. Miciahah smiled faintly and glanced at the mercenary before looking back to the east.

Mia nodded, "Yeah… Zihark never—" she paused over the name for a moment, "He never really understood why, but Stefan explained once. 'The sun comes up before anything can go wrong in a day, it comes before any pain, and sorrow or happiness. The sun comes before it all, bringing with it, each time, a new start, a fresh beginning different from every other one,'" she sighed and closed her eyes again.

"He was a very wise man, Stefan. I… didn't have much time to really know him, but I remember Zihark very well," the Branded smiled again, "Such a loyal soldier, he was…"

Mia nodded again, her brain not wanting to come up with a response and instead wandered to a different place, "We're both alone now, aren't we?" her voice held the slightest hint of hysteria in it, "My family only had three people, and yours had more but…"

"But we're not alone, Mia" Micaiah's voice wasn't on the mountain, watching the sun rise pitifully from the mountains, but somewhere else, "We have everyone else who made it through. We may have lost the ones we considered family, but we have others who've lost friends as well. We'll share our pain and sorrow and find a way through it." She couldn't help but smirk again, "Everything's going to work out Mia, I promise.

Looking at now blue sky, the lone swordmaster couldn't help but believe her.

Something very important to know; if I didn't state they were alive, they're not, alright? As for explanation, I'm not even going to bother with anything other than 'I needed to' think what you will of that.

Anyway, I would really, really appreciate if you could tell me how I did here, as it isn't how I usually write, and I would like to know if I did a good job or not, yes? Thanks for reading it anyways.