Disclaimer: I do NOT own The World Ends With You OR the lyrics to I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Chapter 5: The Beginning

*sighs* Alright, here's the deal. I started this fic several years ago on a premise: that after Joshua and Rhyme died, they would be reincarnated over and over again, losing their memory each time, but always finding each other again. While a good idea, I couldn't come up with any decent ideas for subsequent chapters detailing their search for each other across space and time.

Eventually I dropped the project altogether, although I did come up with an ending. While I showed it to a few interested parties in the past, I never uploaded it. Until now. This was going to be the fifth and final chapter of 'Till Death Do Us Part. As things stand however, I've decided to post it merely for completion and posterities sake.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

Joshua winced and squeezed his eyes shut. The only thing that hurt worse than the pavement digging into his cheek was the light shining into his eyes.

Wait a second...pavement?

The ashen-haired boy opened his eyes. He was lying in what appeared to be a busy street. And a puddle of his own drool. He sat up and looked around blearily. Swarms of people strolled around him, not paying him the least bit of attention.

He frowned. Were unconscious teens in the middle of the street really that common around here?

As he looked around, a half-groaning, half-whimpering noise caught his ear. He turned to see an orange bundle lying on the ground several feet away from him. For some reason, the sight stirred a nameless terror in his heart.

Desperate for reasons he didn't quite understand, he lept to his feet and sprinted over to the bundle, falling to his knees next to it.

It was a girl a few years younger than himself, with straw-blonde hair and a black knit cap jammed down over it. She lay curled up on the pavement, her soft eyelashes forming dark cresents against her pale skin.

"Hey!" He called urgently, shaking her shoulder. "Are you OK?"

She didn't respond.

The fear in his heart started to grow.

"Are you all right? Rhyme!"

The girl opened her eyes and peered up at Joshua curiously. "H-how do you know my name, Joshua?" She asked, confused.

Joshua frowned. "I-I don't know...How do you know my name?"

"I don't know..." Rhyme was sitting up by now, her big blue eyes locked with Joshua's shockingly violet ones.

"Have we met?" Rhyme asked curiously as they simultaneously got to their feet, keeping their gaze locked on each other.

"I don't think so..." Joshua replied, feeling confused and...something else. Something he couldn't quite name.

What is this? He wondered. Who is she?

The beeping of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts.

Without taking his gaze from the young girl in front of him, Joshua pulled his cell phone out and flipped it open.

"Reach 104." He read aloud. "You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure."

At that instant, a lancing pain seared both their palms. When both looked down, they found a timer had been tattooed onto their hands, counting down.

Joshua and Rhyme looked from their palms, to the form of 104 rising in the distance, to each other. Without a word, both turned and sprinted off in the direction of the skyscraper.

As they ran, neither heard the music being played from the speakers of a nearby store.

If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied
And illuminate the 'No's' on their Vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I will follow you into the dark...

I still like the idea behind this fic and I'd love to come back to it someday and actually complete it, but as it stands, I still don't have any new ideas and I frankly don't have the time to devote to it.

I would like to dedicate this fic to Divine Wolfe, or whatever she's calling herself these days. All throughout my struggle when I was trying to come up with ideas for this fic, she never once doubted me and never stopped cheering me on, even going so far as to write a fic just to encourage me.

Thank you so much for believing in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. *bows*