Heyo. How are we all doing?

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Less than a year. That's not bad, right?

Priorities have shifted somewhat. I hope no one's too overly dedicated to this story because new chapters will be sporadic, if they happen at all. It's a good thing, at least for me :)

Thanks for the reviews~

Cheddar, yep, you're not wrong!

justme7777, you're also not wrong xD

And on we go!

Warning: am sure you're all familiar with Crisis Core, you know what's coming. If you aren't, this chapter will reference suicide. Reading from the first ellipsis (...) might be okay if you're sensitive to that topic. You know your own limits - skip the chapter if you need to. Take care of yourself!

Chapter 23 - Fulfilling an Oath

As the trees began to clear and the town came into view, I took my time assessing the risk. I'd gain nothing by rushing. Particularly when I counted… six SOLDIERs lying immobile in the dirt. Their affiliation was anyone's guess.

"This is gonna get complicated," I mumbled, shaking my head. I didn't see any further movement though, in any direction.

Darting out from the trees, I raced over the small hill, hopped the fence and hid behind the nearest house, the end of a row of three. To my right led to the factory, and I briefly wondered how Genesis was, whether Shinra had reached him, whether he had fought or fled. To my left was the road up to Genesis' house, the orchards and out on the way to Mideel. I was once again amazed by the trail Genesis had sent me on, how discreet and concealed it was.

I'd… definitely committed myself to not thinking about Genesis, hadn't I? That was going well. Stupid brain.

I set my eyes on the small house opposite me. The curtains were pulled and there were no visible signs of life, as with the rest of the homes in the village. If I didn't know better I'd say she was already gone, though the house had looked uninhabited from the outside since the first time I'd seen it.

Suddenly it occurred to me; Angeal would've got his mother out of here, wouldn't he? She hadn't wanted to go on her own last time, seemed determined to stay, but her son would've put his foot down. Surely.

After several tense moments gathering my nerves and keeping watch, I edged around the backs of the nearest houses, darting across open space to the front door, and tried it. Unlocked. Really?

And there she was, sat at the table in the same chair she always was. "Really?!" I lent my voice to my frustration this time. Angeal should've got her out of here long ago!

Gillian met my eye, a faraway, barely aware look about her that I didn't like. "Come in," she welcomed, and that I really didn't like.

"Gillian?" I approached carefully, circling her around the edge of the room to study her from head to toe. "Has anyone been here?"

After a few moments, the woman nodded slowly, absently. "Yes, a puppy. He seemed sweet. My son picked him well."

"A puppy?" I echoed, brow furrowed. She nodded again. "Are you feeling okay, Gillian?"

"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine. A little woozy, maybe."

"I… can tell," I murmured, noticing the near-empty glass of water on the table, and the equally-empty plastic container that had held whatever medication I'd noticed her taking before, a few small pills unnoticed in her lap. "I'm going to take you to the bathroom now, real quick, okay?"

Before her sluggish mind came up with a response, I'd swept her up into my arms and raced up the stairs.

…

Focused as I was on Gillian and keeping her alive, a promise I'd made myself without even considering she'd pose as much of a risk to herself as Shinra would, I didn't notice we weren't alone in the house. At least, not until Angeal bellowed so loud for his mother that her toothbrush quivered in its glass.

"Up here," I directed, impressed by his ability to leap up the stairs five at a time. The anguish was written plain across his face, enough for me to know I didn't need to verbally batter him, no matter how much I wanted to. "You were with Genesis?" I asked instead.

His chin fell in a nod. The small bathroom suddenly felt a lot pokier, even as Angeal fell to his knees at his mother's feet.

"She's okay," I quickly filled in, realising that fact maybe wasn't abundantly apparent as I'd thought it was. "I promised I'd watch her while she slept it off." Suddenly realising my hand stroking her hair might've been inappropriate, I pressed my hands into my lap instead.

Angeal thanked me, desperation and abundant relief in his voice, and wrapped his burly arms around me in an almost suffocating grip. Arms stuck to my sides, I sighed and settled for leaning against him, nose buried uncomfortably in his unreasonably broad, rock-solid pecs.

He'd have two passed out women to contend with if he didn't let me go soon. The thought made me huff a breath of a laugh once he'd released me. But jokes could wait. "What's the situation like out there? Much as I don't like the thought of moving her in this state, we probably need to get a move on."

The SOLDIER nodded his agreement, "Genesis will delay them, but Shinra are on their way out. We need to be gone before they are."

"They're leaving? But aren't they here to take him out?"

Angeal wasn't for hanging about, lifting his limp mother into his arms. "Nope," he explained with a grunt, adjusting his hold of her slightly before manoeuvring her out of the bathroom. "They came to see if Genesis was making copies here. He was, so now they're eliminating his operation."

"…Without actually stopping him?"

"Yes."

"…Why?"

I didn't get an answer, as Angeal halted on the last step. Looking over his shoulder and outrageously large sword granted me the horrifying vision of a SOLDIER in the doorway.

I froze, with the full on deer in the headlights look on my face, I was sure. As if the enemy wouldn't spot me if I was immobile.

But was he an enemy? Could've been one of Genesis'. Not that his SOLDIERs felt like allies anymore either.

I didn't think it was, though. Each of them I'd seen had a perpetual, unfazed, robotic look on them, but this one stood in the doorway looked about as frozen as I was, his eyes (a stunning sky blue, only slightly tinged with mako green) almost comically wide open. He had foregone the bulky headgear, letting his porcupine quills stick out at their leisure.

What—

"I'll get this right to him, you can trust the Fair Delivery Service!"—

Hugging on the floor in a tangle of limbs, my normally constrained hair loose about me—

A clumsy brawl while our tutors watched on in disapproval—

Piles of chocolate on the kitchen counter—

My head—

Incoherent stories and meaningless conversations dissolving into giggles—

Getting lost in boring, samey corridors, heading for a room we'd never been to before—

Blue-green eyes wide open and staring at us, mouth opening and closing as he failed to find words—

So much laughter—

Teasing, joking, sharing misery, making mischief—

Hefting a broadsword that was far too heavy for him, a challenging glint in sky blue eyes—

"Don't go forgetting us, now," spoken around a laugh, his arms tossed over the shoulders of two others who waved enthusiastically—

Punching the air, grabbing me in a headlock, warm and friendly from the very first moment, like no one else I'd ever met—

"Zack," I barely breathed. He didn't react.

I'd remembered a little in the last couple weeks, and Angeal had told me a lot (so much it had actually upset him more than it helped me, as he came to grips with what he'd given up by deserting Shinra), but Zack looked so different. So much more grown up. So much harder, and older.

Maybe that was laying it on thick. His hair was still jet black, meanwhile I'd gone grey.

He seemed to get his thoughts back into order, and fixed those unfamiliar SOLDIER eyes on Gillian. "Is she gonna be alright?" he asked quietly.

I was sure I wasn't so much of a crier when I was younger, but with that simple question I had to bow my head and squeeze watering eyes shut, out of sight over Angeal's shoulder armour. The Zack Angeal had described, the one I barely remembered, had a unique warmth and kindness to him. Angeal had abandoned and betrayed Shinra, allied with the enemy, and the first thing his student did when met with him, his unconscious mother, and a perfect stranger, was to ask if the poor woman was alright.

Did that make us fortunate, that our adversary was a close friend? Or did it leave us at a disadvantage, making us unwilling to fight?

"She should be fine. I'll take her to one of her friends, someone who can look after her," Angeal answered, approaching his former student, leaving me alone on the stairs without someone to duck behind. "My friend will be coming with me, as well."

Half a second later, when Zack looked in my direction with a narrowed, suspicious gaze, I realised that Angeal had been talking about me. "Who are you?" he asked the words that drove a stake into my heart.

I smiled thinly, parroting, "A friend."

"You look familiar."

My heart stopped. Angeal turned his head a fraction of a degree in my direction. Zack looked deep in thought.

Time itself paused, until sure enough, narrowed bright eyes sprung wide open in recognition. My breath caught.

"Well isn't this a merry gathering."

Over Zack's shoulder, Genesis made himself known by tossing out a characteristic dry comment. With a lazy smirk and his hands on his hips, he cut the perfect figure of confidence. I suspected that meant he was internally losing his mind at current events.

Zack's reaction was immediate, pivoting and drawing his sword simultaneously to point it threateningly at the redhead.

"Isn't it time you were leaving?" he bit back disdainfully. He didn't seem quite so familiar any more.

Genesis' smile thinned, and he fixed his gaze deliberately past Zack, burning into my eyes instead. I gulped. "Yes, me and my… friend."

I was everyone's friend today. Who'd have thought it'd take a SOLDIER invasion for me to become popular?

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you're here," the former SOLDIER continued when Zack didn't react, speaking directly to me at this point. "You scarcely listened to me in the past, why break that trend now?"

Rhetorical, but I decided to answer regardless. "You were the one not listening," I found my voice, relieved at its stability, "I must've said I wasn't leaving at least three times."

The redhead fought his reluctant smirk, but it was a losing battle.

The one remaining SOLDIER adjusted his grip on his sword, not letting it fall but certainly appearing less reluctant to use it.

His decision was made for him when Angeal, his former tutor, put on his tutor voice and commanded, "Zack, put it down."

He finally looked away from his target to grimace at the man beside him, "What?! Why?"

"Shinra are going to destroy the town, yes?" Angeal asked Zack a question that didn't really need an answer, and didn't receive one. "Then it's time for a tactical retreat. You, and… us."

Even from behind him, I could see the boy flinch. It made me wonder how Shinra could send the one SOLDIER who was emotionally attached—

As if they were ever a moral company in my experience. I inwardly scoffed at my line of thinking.

Zack murmured Angeal's name, aggrieved, as Angeal edged past, carefully out through the door and marched into the distance without looking back. Gillian remained limp, never once stirring in his careful hold.

Meanwhile, Genesis unhelpfully began quoting Loveless at his retreating back, "My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I? All that awaits you is a sombre morrow, no matter where the winds may blow."

"Shut up," Zack uttered through gritted teeth, venomous yet quiet. Genesis' left hand rose, something in his grasp catching the light.

A crystalline, perfectly formed, angry red sphere. Materia. A dangerous kind.

Glowering at him, I took a step closer, wondering if I should try to take it from him. "Don't."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zack jump in surprise, his eyes darting to me. My step had brought us within arms' reach, I suppose that startled him, but he soon followed my eyes and looked to Genesis. Tension crackled in the air.

Genesis stared at me, his jaw taut and brow low over narrowed eyes. His eyes were an acidic green, so different, so alien from their usual green-blue hue. Terror had my heart skipping a beat.

And then it vanished. The look was gone as if it had never been there in the first place, his form relaxed, his hand dropping. Though I didn't dare look at his eyes again, keeping mine affixed to the Materia.

"Catch," was all the warning Zack got as Genesis tossed the orb his way. With all the ease of a SOLDIER, his left hand rose to snatch it out of the air, his sword never wavering, tip hovering at the level of Genesis' midsection. "Clock's ticking," the redhead warned, this time speaking to me, but moved away and out of the doorway. Out of sight, but I was sure he was lingering within earshot.

I moved to follow, but a gloved hand landed on my arm. Meeting Zack's eyes, the soothing bright blue blended with vivid green, my stomach tightened in hope.

That same hope flickered and waned when, in hushed tones, he said, "You don't have to go with him. If you're in danger, I'll protect you."

So maybe he didn't recognise me. But Zack was just the kind of guy who wanted to protect people. This is who he'd grown into in the last three years. This was who I could've been.

A good person. Caring. Protective. And very naïve.

I smiled, because his offer was kind. But my smile was sad, because I couldn't accept his offer, knowing that he couldn't keep it. I took his gloved hand, letting myself hold it for a second before taking it off my arm and lowering it until he let it fall limply by his side. Shaking my head, I replied, "I'm guessing we'll meet again at some point. I hope it's under better circumstances."

Zack frowned, those defeated puppy-dog eyes breaking my heart. "What's your name, at least?" he requested.

He was my closest friend at one point. He said I looked familiar. Every atom of my body was crying out to tell him.

But I couldn't.

Genesis was right, the clock was ticking. And if Zack wanted to keep me safe and away from Genesis before he knew my name, there was every chance he'd fight all the harder if he found it out.

(I hoped he would. Selfish, but I really hoped he would.)

"Next time, maybe," I offered, blinking sternly at my pesky wet eyes. Grimacing into a final smile, I turned and left the house.

Spotting Genesis a distance away to my right, the ex-SOLDIER turned away and towards the factory, I jogged to approach. Pleasantly surprised that he apparently hadn't been listening in, I was about to call out to get his attention until he turned swiftly to face me, approaching me in long, swift strides which almost out-sped my jog. His expression was carefully blank, which immediately had alarm bells ringing. I staggered to a stop.

"What is it?" I asked, though surely there was only one thing it could be.

The redhead took two strides to close what distance remained, and lifted one gloved hand to place it gently on my cheek. A surprising gesture since neither of us were in the other's good books at the moment, but I didn't feel surprise, only fear. And already, a reluctant acceptance. "We're too late."

Well. My time really should've been up a long time ago, I suppose.

"If you had only stayed with the copy," he hissed, more to himself than to me. He shook his head in some agitation, dropping his hand to his side but refocusing his familiar blue-green eyes on mine. "I'm sorry, but please remember, this is who I always was. It has nothing to do with my work here. I was always this way, since before you ever met me."

"It doesn't matter."

My hands clenched into fists. And in the stillness, stunned shock turned into blind fury.

I'd procrastinated, put it off because it would be unpleasant, until there was no time left.

No longer.

"Why would you do all this? Why would you hurt the people who stood with you? Manipulate them, experiment on them?! Are they no more to you than you were to Hollander, or I was to Hojo? How could you?!"

Maybe I expected him to get angry, start fighting back. But maybe the fight had left him. Through blurred vision I couldn't see any change in facial expression. He didn't even react. Not to shout, or speak spiteful words, or to make false apologies; not walking away, not moving any closer, not drawing any weapon.

"Angeal is so determined to see your side, so unwilling to accept that any blame lies with you, but you had a choice! You could've left Shinra, and stopped the bloodshed, the meaningless sacrifices, but you made it worse! You're hurting everyone except the people who hurt you! And I…

"…I knew that, and I ignored it."

I dropped my head to study my fisted hands. I'd killed a SOLDIER in self-defence, fought others, and yet my hands had never looked as bloody as they did now. I thought to uncurl my fingers, and they did, but it felt foreign, disconnected, it felt like they shouldn't belong to me. My fingertips tingled.

"How could I do that…?"

A pair of hands grasped my shoulders, so abruptly that I tore my eyes upwards. Genesis usually had a good poker face, but right now it broadcasted how he felt; grief and sorrow in the crease of his brow, desperation in bared, gritted teeth, and a fierce urgency in the burn of his SOLDIER eyes.

I couldn't put words to what passed between us, but when he pulled me into his chest and held me there, the repulsion I thought I'd feel never came. But I couldn't return it. I just stood limp, leaning on him, vision darkening at the edges.

Genesis said, "We are monsters," over my head, and I felt my neck crack as we were launched into the air.

A deafening explosion.

Howling in my ears.

Wind viciously surrounding us, stinging exposed skin.

Monsters.

Hitting the ground, my left shoulder taking the brunt of the impact, seared against burning metal.

Flinching away, only for shadowy figures to hold me tighter, dragging me from the wreckage.

Dragging me to Hojo.

We are monsters.

Squirming, because maybe I could get away this time—

"Sapphire," a familiar voice hissed into my ear, "stop, you're safe. You're with me."

Ah. My limitless white room. A low table, with a game of Scrabble in progress on top. And Genesis was here.

His phantom arms were wrapped around me, I could feel them, but I couldn't see him. How strange.

But no, there he was. Lying on a dirt road, expressionless face turned my way, in a purple SOLDIER uniform.

And again, propped against a tree with an unusually-coloured apple in his hand.

How could I ignore this?

We are monsters.

Am I really that selfish?

No more.

I strained my heavy eyelids, but suddenly opening my eyes seemed an insurmountable challenge. Numb fingers twitched, wanting to reach up and rub at uncooperative eyelids, but my arms were secured to my sides and couldn't be moved no matter how hard I strained.

I shivered, goosebumps breaking out across the back of my neck. I was cold. Was I ill?

"You're okay, Sapphire. I've got you."

No more.

I cringed away from the voice, far too soothing and far too close, but I was held all the tighter. "I'll let you go soon, just a little farther."

His voice was only just audible above the roaring in my ears. All I could hear was a hurricane.

…It's all I could feel as well. My cheeks and neck stung with the wind viciously whipping my hair. And it was cold.

Cracking one eye, then another, all I could see was black. Genesis' not terribly comfy pauldron, I recalled. My eyes panned upwards.

More black. But actually soft looking. Fluffy, almost. Arcing over Genesis' shoulder, stretching far.

My eyes traced the outline. Perceiving, but not comprehending.

Until I did.

"You have a— you— wait— are we— we're…" blink blink, swallow, "actually… flying?"

The wing swept down in a single powerful beat, as if nonverbally answering in the affirmative. "Yes."

This is who I always was. "You have— you have wings."

"A wing," he corrected hollowly. My eyes skipped to the left, disbelieving. They caught on his own before I got a good look at the empty space over his other shoulder. He looked pained.

Against my better judgment, my heart ached to comfort. So I said, "That's so cool."

Then when his expression shuttered, I was left wondering where my filter had gone.

No reason not to be honest. Except maybe when you're paying a casual compliment to a person's mutation, no doubt the result of horrendously unethical experiments conducted on him as a child.

Even if you're right.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it that—"

"We can land here," Genesis interrupted, quickly drawing himself – and me by extension – into an upright position. Our abrupt halt stole my breath, causing a few gasping coughs as I fought to get it back. He didn't say anything, though the way his fingers curled firmly into my back felt like an apology.

No more.

Our descent to the ground, into a small clearing in the middle of a forest (of ordinary trees, not Banora White ones) was leisurely and weightless. Drifting. It was eerily serene, after all the tension of Banora, Angeal and Gillian, Zack, the explosion.

The explosion. "Did they really blow it up?"

Genesis only nodded. If he was grieving, his poker face was excellent.

"How did we make it out?" He frowned, brow furrowed, looking confused. "I thought I heard…"

Shaking his head, the ex-SOLDIER corrected me, explaining, "We were gone before the bombs dropped. Their operative was still in the field, so they delayed the bombing."

Callous way to put it, but okay. "I was so sure…"

The deafening boom, the sudden blast of heat, the feeling of being flung into the air…

The sensation was so familiar. I'd only experienced it once, but I'd felt it a thousand times.

Just when I was starting to regain the trust in my senses that had been sorely lacking for so long.

The sudden thump of my feet meeting the ground sent a jolt up my spine. Despite feeling three times heavier than I had when we'd set off, and five times wearier, I hastily unwrapped myself from his close hold and ducked away from him, folding my arms together tightly.

If he was offended by the defensive move, he didn't let on. His wing— his wing— relaxed, furling inwards to rest neatly at his side. Scrutinising the limb, I supposed I was losing all semblance of rational thought because I was more intrigued by its irregular shape than the fact of its actual existence. I couldn't call myself a bird expert, but the extra joint two-thirds along the wingspan looked… wrong, somehow. Deformed. It looked like it shouldn't fly.

As if I took issue with Genesis being able to fly because of the shape of his wing and not the fact he had only one of them. What few marbles I'd still had must've been left in Banora.

Despite its misshapenness, it curled in so comfortably at his left side, as if it was always meant to be there. It undoubtedly was a natural extension of himself, as much as any other limb.

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" I found myself asking, unsure why.

His brow furrowed. Following a moment or two of palpable confusion, he answered, "No."

"That's good."

When the thick, uncomfortable silence grew to be too much, I let out a sigh and cast a glance around, studying the trees. My skin prickled as a chilly breeze blew, the sound of rustling leaves comforting. I rubbed my upper arms, keeping my arms folded tightly.

"Where are we?"

"Eastern continent. Grasslands and eventually Midgar to the north, Junon to the west. I need to rest for a moment, but if you are amenable we can continue soon."

It had been months since our farewell, but the thought of reuniting with Peeka at the chocobo ranch north of here was one that tempted a smile. I suppressed it though, instead asking, "Where are we going?"

"Wherever you want," was his avoidant answer, his voice carefully absent of expression.

"You say that like I understand what's going on. You haven't told me a thing." Spoken with a breath of a laugh, but I was anything but amused.

He refused to meet my eyes, turning his head away, leaving me to stare at that infernal strand of hair. "Wherever you want to go, I'll take you there. That's all. You'll be safe; you won't have to be conflicted any longer."

Reading between the lines wasn't so difficult. "And you'll leave me there," I finished for him with careful blankness, letting my hands fall into my pockets, the pockets of the burgundy hoodie he'd once owned and passed down to me.

Eventually, his head tipped forward, "Yes."

"No."

He sighed heavily, so I supposed I'd ruffled his feathers. Wait, I'd already thought that joke about Peeka… "You said yourself, you don't agree with what I'm doing. And you would be in danger around me. Better to keep your distance."

"You propose that I crawl under a rock and twiddle my thumbs, while the only people I care about tear each other apart? You're dreaming. I'm staying with you."

At last, his head turned toward me. Mako eyes blazed, vivid and fierce. "You would watch on, as I hurt those who stood with me?" he quoted my earlier words back at me.

Unexpectedly, a smile came easily. "No. I'll make you change your mind."

"You think you have so much sway over my decisions?" Genesis smirked bitterly.

"Maybe not," I admitted softly, but my smile didn't slip. "But maybe I can, someday."

No more. I couldn't ignore it any longer.

Genesis had been ready to fight Zack, with that dangerous Materia in his hand, I was sure. Maybe it wasn't on my word alone that he changed his mind, but if I had the barest influence, I had to do all I could.

Because he wasn't a monster. But he had done monstrous things. And there was every chance I was overestimating my importance, but I had to try. I didn't have much else going on anyway.

"Besides," I continued with a shrug, "you're good company. I'd really miss you."

The stony, abrasive look that had been building on his face faltered at that. His eyes narrowed speculatively, as if staring hard enough would let him figure out if I was deceiving him or not. The huge dark wing moved slowly, unfurling somewhat from beside him to hover further behind. I couldn't be sure, but it seemed like a less defensive position to me. "I would miss you too."

Deciding to take it at face value, my smile brightened. "Seems straightforward to me."

"It is anything but," he huffed with a humourless laugh, turning his face away once more. "I cannot stop my research, or Hollander's experiments. If I do, I will die."

"Angeal told me…" I shuffled closer to him, reaching a hand out as if to comfort him. I couldn't quite close those last few inches, though. "I… I'm sorry."

It didn't feel like the right thing to say, but what else was there? I wasn't even sure I actually felt sorry for him. All I could think was the road into Banora, the trail where one of who-knows-how-many copies had lain, with no signs of life and no signs of a battle either. Genesis didn't deserve what happened to him, but they didn't deserve what he'd done to them either. My head pulsed from a persistent headache.

"But I have to ask," I continued, taking a shuddering breath to gather what shreds of confidence I could. "What about the SOLDIERs? The ones who get your traits copied onto them."

"They're not innocent," Genesis deflected, his tone biting.

"Neither are you." My argument came automatically, and as if Genesis had anticipated it, an angry sigh came from him before I'd even finished the short statement.

"I liberated them from Shinra. They remain because they know we stand the best chance of stopping Shinra together.

"That is the price of freedom."

My hands fisted. "But they're dying."

The ex-SOLDIER's passion faded into solemnity. "Every loss is regrettable, but none in vain. It is all in pursuit of the cure, the gift of the Goddess, which I will share to save everyone; the SOLDIERs, and Angeal."

Isn't that… from Loveless? My body shuddered with a chill, as it occurred to me that he might already be too far gone. My mind moved sluggishly but decided to set it aside for now, instead arguing, "They wouldn't need it if not for you."

The fire behind Genesis' eyes waned then. Dispassionately, he intoned, "You would prefer me to die, then."

"I don't want you to die," I slowly explained what I felt was obvious, accompanied by a heavy sigh, "but… your life isn't more important than anyone else's. Any… experiments to help you should begin and end with you. Same with Angeal, me, anyone. That's just my take."

"Sapphire, can you tell me how you're feeling?"

Weird question. "I'm fine, what'reyou—"

Suddenly my tongue felt weirdly heavy. Furrowing my brow, I hunched my shoulders against a chill, raising a hand to examine its slow ascent with dull curiosity.

Cold, pricking my nerves like pins and needles.

Genesis' soothing voice echoing in my ears, "Your nose is bleeding—"

A roaring heat, a deafening boom, the feeling of being thrown through the air—

The distant cackling of a madman accompanied my consciousness' fading into nothingness.