Chapter 22

Luke's steps echoed as he followed behind everyone. No one was waiting for him to catch up; no one was even looking over their shoulder to see if he was still following. They didn't care. Nobody did.

Yulia City was a dead city. Despite the myriad of glowing lights and abundance of Dawn Age technology, the city's purple hues drowned it in the miasma its barriers kept at bay. Save for his former companions a few steps ahead of him, there wasn't a person to found anywhere. So Luke just continued to walk, entranced by the steady echo of his own footsteps.

Maybe no one lived here, or maybe they had all died, murdered by the poisonous fog that lay just beyond the city's boundaries, just like Akzeriuth. Just like you how you killed them. No. No! He didn't want to kill them! He didn't kill them! All that blood couldn't be on his hands… no… it just couldn't be. It wasn't... He wanted to protect them! He had to protect them!

Luke's erratic thoughts were cut off by the sound of ruffling feathers and a soft thump followed by footsteps. Luke slowly glanced over his shoulder to identify the source of the noise. His heart jumped and he flew around when his eyes caught a glimpse of a very familiar crimson.

Asch's emerald eyes were hard and cold as he slowly approached his counterpart, but his harsh mood didn't get through to Luke. Rather, Luke's eyes lit up and he ecstatically made his way towards his sibling. Finally…

But before Luke even had the chance to react, Asch had his blade drawn and pointed straight at him. He froze on the spot, the tip of his sibling's sword dancing dangerously close to his face. Luke began to tremble as he took a hesitant step back, then another, and another. Shaken, he continued to move away as feelings of complete shock and defeat crashed over him.

No... Asch was - Asch was supposed to understand. Asch was supposed to be the one to listen to him...Of course. This wasn't Asch… It couldn't be Asch. Asch would never… this was just some figment of his imagination, a trick of his mind. Yeah… that was it. Then in that case... all he had to do was-

Luke drew his own sword and in a heartbeat was charging his reflection. Rage, pain and desperation coursed through every vein of his body, and it was all because of this person before him. Their blades met and he threw all his racing feelings behind it. Without even missing a beat, Asch took his sword in a single hand and threw Luke aside like a rag doll.

With the back of his hand, Luke brushed away the blood that ran down his face. He pulled himself to his feet, his left arm trembling in anger to the point where he almost dropped his sword. His opponent didn't make a move, standing calmly, watching him, his blade loosely dangling in his right hand, waiting for him to move.

Luke clutched his own sword so hard his fists turned white, his aberrant mind unable to follow any coherent thoughts. Everything was gone. Everyone was gone. No! They weren't gone! He had to protect them! Raising his blade, he assaulted his sibling only to be blocked without any trouble at all.

'What's the matter Luke? I thought you were trying to kill me!' Asch's mocking voice echoed in Luke's racing mind.

'Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!' Luke screamed back as he placed blow after blow only to be easily fended off.

'Why did you do it? Why did you kill all those people?'

'I didn't! I didn't kill them!' Luke swung his sword down on his original.

'You're never going to beat me,' Asch easily blocked Luke's attack, 'until you learn to control those emotions of yours!'

Asch struck and Luke was sent skidding across the ground. Luke trembled as he pulled himself to his knees, and then to his feet. He wouldn't lose, not now, not ever. He still had- he still had to protect them.

'Don't be a fool.' Asch stated solemnly as he fended of Luke's ensuing onslaught. 'There's no one left to protect. They're all gone!'

'No! No they're not!' Luke cried attempting to force his statements into reality with every swing.

'They're dead Luke! And they aren't coming back!'

No it wasn't true… It couldn't be true- He wouldn't let it be true! Luke asserted every bit of his anger, his desperation, and even his loneliness, as he struck again and again. Make it go away. Just make it go away and it won't hurt anymore. Make him go away and it won't be painful anymore. He just had to make them all go away.

'Do you think if you beat me they'll come back? That all this will just disappear?'

'Stop it. Don't- Leave me alone!'

'No Luke. I will not leave you alone. Not until you tell me what you did!'

'I didn't do anything!'

'You're lying!'

Asch had yet to place his other hand on his blade. He effortlessly parried Luke's increasingly desperate attacks, and easily tossed him aside. Looking down on his scrambling sibling, he relentlessly dominated the fight.

'Why didn't you try and protect them?' Asch demanded.

'I did! I did try to protect them!'

'Then what were you protecting them from?'

'From the miasma! They were all going to die! I had to get rid of it!'

'And how were you going to get rid of it?'

'I just had to go down to the passage ring. There were Seventh Fonons everywhere-'

'Why the hell did you need Seventh Fonons?!'

'-but there were too many.' Luke continued to ramble in desperation, his attacks picking up their pace, completely oblivious to Asch's demand. 'So many fonons… they were everywhere, and they kept coming and coming and coming and they wouldn't go away! They wouldn't leave me alone! I couldn't- and I… I…'

Luke's onslaught suddenly stopped. His shoulders sagged and a laugh escaped him that made Asch's hair stand on end, drowned as it was in sorrow and tinged with insanity.

'They're all gone.' Luke finally admitted when his disturbed laughter had faded away. 'I was the one who killed them all. I wanted to save them but they're dead, and it's all my fault.'

'You don't understand anything do you?'

'Understand?' Luke's attacks began again with a renewed intensity only to be effortlessly blocked by Asch. 'I don't understand?! How could you understand? How could someone like you possibly understand?! You have a life! You have a future that no one can take away! How could you possibly know what it's like to have all that ripped away from you?!'

'You think I don't know what its like to lose everything important to me?'

'Of course not! People look up to you and admire you! They always have! Everybody loves you and trusts you and worries about you when you're gone! It's always been that way, even when we were kids! You were always more important! No one cares about me! They use me until I'm useless and they throw me away like a piece of garbage! So tell me-' Luke eyes filled with tears as his rampant onslaught continued, 'tell me how you could possibly understand!'

'If I can't understand, then make me understand! Tell me why you did it!' Asch placed his other hand on his sword and in a single powerful swing he met Luke's strike and sent him crashing down onto the cold stone beneath him, staining it with the blood of his steadily accumulating injuries.

If Luke had been a mess before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. His once pristine white coat was tattered and torn, covered in splotches of mud and dirt. Red stained the sleeves and waist where blood continued to trickle from the countless injuries that he now wore. He was beaten and bruised from having been thrown around and the way he fought to keep his hand steady betrayed his steadily weakening will. He was having trouble getting back up; this fight wouldn't last much longer.

'You're just like everyone else.' Luke finally managed once he had pulled himself to his knees. Blood and sweat camouflaging the tears that hit the ground along side them. 'I get it now. You don't believe me. You don't trust me. No one ever did… because no one has ever told me the truth. You never told me about your kidnapping you know… I had to hear it from Van! And not just you, Ion never told me about the passage rings, or the Sephiroth, or anything. Then even Master Van! Everything he- Everything…' Luke wiped away his tears as he stood up. 'So now... I have nothing left to lose.'

Luke renewed his assault, but it was different then before. The anger and the hard feelings that had previously driven him were all but gone, leaving a shell of pain and remorse. True to his words, Luke put everything he had left into his attacks. There was no thought out strategies, no complex patterns in his movement, he simply attacked; over and over, becoming more wild and reckless with every swing. At this rate, he was going to end up hurting himself.

'I see now.' In a single fluid motion, Asch disarmed Luke sending his sword skidding across stone, and without leaving Luke any time to react, landed a solid punch across his face that sent him crashing to the ground. Asch then placed his sword neatly between Luke's eyes. Luke could only weakly look back up at his original; he no longer had the strength to get up.

Asch calmly watched Luke as the tense silence enveloped them both. In spite of the mess Luke appeared to be, Asch was finally starting to feel a bit relieved. When he had first arrived, he could sense Luke's erratic thoughts, bordering so very dangerously on the edge of insanity. It scared him. It had scared him far more than he'd care to admit, and he had been willing to do anything to bring Luke back. He just couldn't lose Luke, not to this, not to any of Van's atrocities.

But now Luke seemed okay. He was still devastated, and more upset than Asch could ever describe, and though it was going to be a long and hard journey, he would eventually get better. All the anger and resentment, and even a bit of the loneliness had faded away. He had finally accepted what had happened, and as painful and difficult as that was; he could finally start to deal with it. And then someday, he would smile again.

'I have nothing left anymore.' Luke brokenly admitted as he struggled to hang onto his consciousness. 'Everyone's left. There's no one who would care about me.'

'You're wrong.' Luke confusedly looked up at his older brother and saw a sad smile on his face. Everything else around them dissolved and Luke watched as Asch lowered his blade and extended his hand.

'Come with me, and I'll prove it to you.'

Luke hesitantly reached up, afraid that at the last second it might all disappear. His arm was heavy, and it dragged him down, but he wouldn't let it beat him. He desperately needed to reach out, to know that someone still cared. He took Asch's hand and as soon as he did, he felt a suffusing warmth sweep over him. Leaving that heaviness and suffering behind, Luke carefully allowed Asch to pull him up.

All the pain and sorrow was gone, if only for that brief moment, and the strangest feeling washed over him. He came to the realization that a part of him was still on the ground, lying under the intense scrutiny of Asch's blade.

'What's going on?'

'Relax.' Asch's reassuring voice infused him with comforting warmth. Luke closed his eyes. 'Just trust me. I won't let anything happen to you.' Luke quietly accepted Asch's words for what they were and allowed his consciousness to rest.

Everything had gone wrong, and because he had messed up, countless people died. But the burden wasn't as heavy anymore.

At least he had been able to protect one of them.