Chapter 4: His Love for Her
"The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land;
You may almost hear the beating of his wings."
-John Bright
About ten miles away from the Zanarkand Hospital, there could be at least eight police cars seen with several ambulances at the side of a highway. Police officers had the area surrounded with tape, so no one could see what had happened. In the center of the area surrounded by medics and officers, were two bodies who had just been dragged from the inside of a totalled car. Paramedics were trying everything they could to revive the couple, but nothing worked.
Several minutes after Tidus' Death List summoned him, he reached the spot where Lenne Darkanzan and Shuyin Abizcelt were. Tidus was immediately shocked by the couple's appearance; Lenne and Shuyin's arms and legs were arranged in an odd fashion and they were bruised and bloody all over. Paramedics were surrounding them trying to do all they could to get the two back to life. Both had their eyes closed, and they looked like they had fallen from a great height and would not get up.
Before he could fathom what was going on, Tidus looked again into his Death List. Both Lenne and Shuyin's names were black. At that exact moment, the paramedics stopped trying to bring back the couple; it was too late.
"They're gone. There was nothing I could do, I'm sorry." The head paramedic explained to his co-workers, who looked grimly at the others. "Here, lets get these two into body bags." As the paramedics prepared the body bags, Tidus walked over to Lenne and Shuyin and grabbed his hands into their bodies, pulling their ghostly forms out. Tidus set the forms down, and Lenne and Shuyin's ghosts stood up, looking at Tidus with wonder.
"What...what happened?" Lenne asked quietly staring at her transparent arms trying to comprehend what had just occured. Shuyin was also staring at himself, pondering the same idea.
"Both of you just died in an accident." Tidus answered grimly, not noticing the horrified expression on Shuyin's face. "I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do."
It took Lenne and Shuyin a few minutes to understand their situation and how it all happened. But one thing was certain; they would never see their friends or family again. They had each other, but everything would be different from now on.
"Dead...?" Shuyin asked, not looking at Tidus directly in the face. "And, who are you?"
"I'm the Angel of Death, but you can call me Tidus. Well, I'm actually the real angel's apprentice; the real guy is on vacation. You could say that I've come to take you two away." Tidus answered taking out his Death List.
"Away? To heaven?" Lenne asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Will Shuyin be with me?" Lenne tried to put her arm around Shuyin's shoulders, but her arm merely faded through her lover's body.
"That's my job. And I'll do it in just a sec---" Tidus stopped midway through his sentence; he noticed something very odd written in the Death List. Besides names appearing there, the cause of death was there also. Written next to Lenne's name in black was the word murder, and next to Shuyin's name was suicide. Tidus had expected the term 'accident' to be next to the names, but not suicide or murder.
"Listen, Shuyin." Tidus closed up the Death List and looked at Shuyin with a stern expression on his face. "Could I talk to you for a sec? It won't take too long."
Shuyin looked at Lenne apprehensively, but instead she nodded in agreement. Tidus took Shuyin over to the other side of the highway, away from Lenne's ghost and hers and Shuyin's real bodies, which were being loaded into an ambulance.
"Shuyin..." Tidus folded his arms, while Shuyin looked nervously at the angel. "I have this notebook known as the Death List, and every person who has died and the cause of their death are written there."
"Go on." Shuyin answered, hoping Tidus would get to the point.
"It was written there that Lenne was murdered, and you committed suicide. I thought you two died in a car accident, not what I just told you." Tidus looked at Shuyin with an even more serious expression on his tanned face. "Explain."
For a moment there, Shuyin said nothing. Instead he was shaking and staring at his feet; if his ghostly form had color, then his face would be pale.
"I...okay." Shuyin stared back at Tidus. "Lenne was murdered, and I killed her."
Tidus felt as if his insides turned cold; he didn't realize that the outcome of the accident was really murder.
"Shuyin, because you murdered her I should send you to hell, it's in the rules of the---"
"Okay! I didn't stab her or anything, both of us died in the accident! But the accident was on purpose." Shuyin answered, still not looking at the angel directly.
"What do you mean?"
"I...I on purposely crashed our car. It's all my fault, but I can explain. You see, I was not mad at Lenne for anything. It's just that, a few weeks ago, I got a call from the doctor saying that Lenne was diagnosed with a rare disease; the Geo-Stigma. Like I said, it's really rare, but somehow there have been many cases lately and Lenne got it. I couldn't bear to tell her the truth; after all, Geo-Stigma patients last only about half a year. I was devastated that this happened to Lenne. So instead of watching her die while I suffered alongside her, I decided to take her life away. Look, I knew what I was going to do was crazy and wrong, but then I decided to kill myself with her so we'd be together forever in the afterlife."
"So, you killed yourself and Lenne on purpose so she wouldn't have to go through the Geo-Stigma." Tidus answered, trying to remember everything Shuyin told him.
"Pretty much." For the first time in over ten minutes, Shuyin looked back into Tidus' face. This time Tidus noticed a tear on Shuyin's cheek. "It's just that...have you ever loved someone so much that you'd protect them from anything, but if they found out they'd hate you forever? Even at the risk of your own life? I would, and that's why I caused the accident."
Tidus thought about Shuyin's statement for a bit. Would he sacrifice Yuna Leonhart, in order to prevent her from suffering from a terrible fate? He didn't know what to believe anymore.
"Listen." Tidus took out the Deathseeker, feeling the mahogany wood in his left hand. "I'll make you a deal. I won't send you to hell, but I won't send you to heaven either."
"I'm following. But what's the catch?" Shuyin asked suspiciously.
"Instead I'll send you to Purgatory. It's the boundary between heaven and hell. Purgatory is not as great as heaven, nor it is evil as hell. I'm afraid they wouldn't accept you in heaven with the murder." Shuyin looked at Tidus guiltily. "But the two of you will be together for an eternity."
"I...I don't know what to say. This isn't really necessary at all..."
"Don't mention it. One thing, though." Tidus moved closer to Shuyin. "Don't tell Lenne why you're not going to heaven, okay?"
"I'll keep that secret with me to the grave. Wait, like that'll ever work." Shuyin grinned; at least he got to talk to someone about his troubles.
"Shuyin! What's taking so long?" Lenne called out to her lover impatiently. "I've been waiting her for fifteen minutes or so!"
"Coming!" Before Shuyin ran off, he looked at Tidus once more. "By the way, thanks. Since that I'm leaving earth, I guess there' s nothing I can do for you."
"Hey, don't worry about it." Tidus walked over to Lenne and Shuyin, taking out the Deathseeker. The ambulance and the paramedics were long gone from the scene; even Shuyin's wrecked car had been taken away.
"Ready?" Tidus asked, holding the Deathseeker in his right hand. "Let's go, then."
Tidus created a flat arrow with his staff, and a portal appeared next to him.
"In you go, then." Nervously, Shuyin and Lenne began to walk in, but stopped at the entrance. They waved goodbye a final time, and disappeared for good into the bright light.
"That went well." Tidus thought to himself, opening up the Death List once more. A new name had appeared there, this time in white. However, it was very slowly fading to a light gray. "Paine Crimson, drug overdose."
In the heart of Zanarkand, around midnight...
Far away from the highway where Tidus sent off Lenne and Shuyin, a three room flat could be found in the center of Zanarkand. It was not bright with activity like the rest of the metropolis, but dark and foreboding with mystery. The flat's owner was lying on the floor of the apartment, holding a large, three quarters full empty bottle of vodka in her hand. She had been drinking for almost an hour nonstop. Objects were thrown around the room everywhere; it was as if a tornado hit the place. The woman was nearly unconscious, but she managed to get some words out.
"Yevon...somebody...help me..." It wouldn't be long before the Angel of Death paid her a visit.