FINAL ACT : QUIETUS

The pain was immediately followed by numbness, and then unawareness that the wound was there at all when he saw Megumi standing in the doorway, first approaching slowly. Lucifurius was gone, defeated. He had won.

But as soon as she saw the blood dripping onto the glittering black tiles of the temple floor, and he staggered and fell to his knees, she broke into a run, horrified. No. Not after all this.

She dropped down next to him, gripping his shoulders as he coughed, choking on the blood that was starting to come up his throat, dripping from the corners of his mouth.

"Hah... Should have been more careful..." he gasped, starting to fall back.

She caught him around the shoulders and pulled him closer, trying not see all the blood spilling from the ragged hole in his chest, silently willing him as the tears started to run down her face not to die, to stay alive, he couldn't die now, not after all this.

"At least he's gone now... It wasn't entirely a waste."

Megumi shook her head. "Don't say that. You aren't going to die."

He coughed again, shoulders heaving. "...I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't think... All I wanted was to be with you... I didn't want anything in the way of that... I thought... I thought once he was gone..." His words caught in his throat, and he stopped, barely managing shallow, labored breaths.

She smoothed back his hair, stifling a sob. "Shh... It's... It's alright... Nothing can ever get in the way of that."

He smiled slightly. "I'm glad to... hear you say that. I'm sorry I couldn't..." He took one last sharp, shuddering breath.

"Nightmare..." She clung to him, sobbing. "You can't die, not after all this... I promised I was going to make you immortal, so you could be with me forever... But your end of the promise was to stay alive until I could! I can't lose you, after I've lost everyone else... I love you, I love you more than anything... You can't... Nightmare..."

But the truth was inescapable. The feeble beating of his torn heart had ceased altogether, the blood no longer flowed from the wound. Nightmare was dead and gone, and no amount of pleading would change that.

"No! You can't just die, not after everything we did to get here! This was... This was only supposed to be the beginning, this can't be how it ends!" She buried her face in his shoulder, unable to do anything but remain in place, clinging to him, paralyzed by despair.

She barely heard when Ismaire spoke to her. "I'm sorry, Megumi."

She shook her head. "Tell me this isn't... I can't... He can't be..."

Silence. Ismaire had nothing she could say.

After what seemed like hours, she stepped forward, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Megumi. Come on, you have to let go. You can't... There's nothing you can do." She sighed. "I'm sorry. I... I was wrong. If he died protecting you, then he really did love you... And I wish it didn't take this to get me to realize that."

Megumi sobbed again. "I can't keep doing this. I can't keep living when I'm losing everything that matters to me..."

Ismaire frowned. "But you have to. You're always talking about fulfilling the responsibilities given to you as an Elemental. And you still have them."

"I've done enough. I can't keep going, I can't keep protecting a world that's taken everything from me."

"Then don't. But Nightmare died so that you could stay alive, and if you give up, then he died for nothing."

Megumi slowly looked up and turned to face her. "Come back and say that after you have nothing to live for, Ismaire. He was what I was living for, being with him, because he was the only one I've ever loved and ever will." It seemed so wrong to speak as though he was just something that had been, not something that still was.

"Then you'll be with him in due time. But right now, you still have responsibilities to your people. And Calstifer, Malklith, Gambit, and me. We're your friends. We aren't going to let you give up because you think there's nothing to live for. That's not true. There's always something."

Megumi looked back at Nightmare. He'd been so alive not a few minutes ago, how could he be so dead now? "No, Ismaire. There was something. There isn't anymore."

"Well, I'll find something." Ismaire's tone was adamant, but there was a hint of desparation beneath it.

Megumi wiped away the tears running down her face only to have them replaced by more. "Fine, if you want to me to keep living like this, then I will. But I can't promise it will be for long, or that it will really even be considered living."

"Then you'll give us time to show you, at least, that there's always something."

There wouldn't be. There would never be. The only person she had ever loved was gone.

But don't worry, my love... I'll be joining you soon enough.