"You have to do something awful, don't you?"

The question was sudden and unexpected. Killua and Gon had been talking and a silence had folded between them, alone in the hospital room. That was when Gon sprung the question.

Gon was excellent at laying traps. Killua had seen him, out in the woods, make them with perfection. How Gon could make traps with such simple words, Killua wondered.

Killua sealed his expression, but hazel eyes saw right through him.

Killua looked down. He couldn't tell him, but he felt the words leaving his lips. He quivered.

"I'm to kill you, and if I do I don't have to go home. If I don't kill you, Illumni will and I'll be forced to return."

Killua bit his lip. He hadn't wanted to say it. But he had.

There was no turning back now.

Gon didn't say anything at first, but Killua could see him thinking. What would he do? Boy, was he an idiot. He shouldn't have said anything. He hadn't wanted to say anything in the first place! God, he was stupid. Seriously, how could be so-

"Well then, why don't we fake my death and then make a run for it?"

Gon broke his thoughts into a million pieces. Killua almost laughed. What a ridiculous idea.

'We can't do that! they'll see right through me." Killua looked down. Killua hadn't even taken another breath before Gon dropped his response. It was the same reaction gotten from Killua as if he had just dropped a bomb.

"Then kill me, now."

Killua's head shot up. Gon's own eyes were dead serious, hard, and confident. He meant what he said.

So Killua didn't feel bad about flicking his finger to his forehead.

"OW! What was that for?!" Gon whined.

"You were being an idiot, that's why! Don't say that!" Killua shouted, annoyed, and surprised. Gon, you idiot...

"But that way you won't have to go home!"

Killua looked at Gon. He had said it so honestly, so unafraid, so concerned for his friend. Why did he have to have this great friend?

Killua smiled at Gon, almost mockingly, but it was friendly all the same.

"Let's not to anything then." came Gon's response to his friends smile.

Killua choked. Not do anything?

"But then Illumni-"

"You'll be here. It's okay." Gon interrupted him.

Killua stared at him.

He had stared that face for so long, he had studied for countless hours. That honest expression he had committed to memory.

"How can you say that? How can you possibly say that? You can only speak and smile and-"

"Wiggle my fingers!" interjected Gon, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, and then elation, as his finger moved around.

Killua blinked.

"And look, I even got my wrist to move up in down!" Gon moved his wrist a few centimeters. A huge smile spread across his face, full of joy and pride.

Killua looked at his feet. He took a deep breath in, and he began to tremble. He couldn't take this anymore. He couldn't. Not when...

"HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE SO NAIVE?! HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET?! SERIOUSLY, THAT IS THE DUMBEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE AND YOUR EXCITED ABOUT WIGGLING YOUR FINGERS? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE SO SELFISH?! YOUR GOING TO DIE!"

Killua seethed. Taking another deep breath, he started again.

"LOOK AT YOU! YOUR SO PATHETIC! WHY DO I EVEN HAVE YOU AS A FRIEND? YOU KNOW WHAT, IF YOU CONTINUE TO ACT LIKE THIS I DON'T CARE WHETHER YOU DIE OR NOT!"

The words slipped from his lips, full force, hard, cold, merciless, heartless. Cruel.

The smile had been stolen from Gon's face. The hazel eyes were cold and empty. Almost lifeless.

Killua took a step back. He didn't just say that, did he? He hadn't seriously just said all that out loud. Killua blinked. His voice was still hoarse from screaming. Gon's eyes were closing, slowly, deliberately.

Killua took another step back, stunned.

"Killua? I need to think. Alone."

Gon's voice was small and fragile. Killua silently opened the door, backing away. When he closed it behind him, he leaned on it heavily. His hands to his face, he ran his fingers through his white hair.

He had really just done that, hadn't he.

Someone was tapping on his shoulder, saying his name. It was annoying. Finally, he looked up into the warm face of a nurse.

"I have to check on Gon."

Killua stepped aside.

The events that followed seemed surreal; they came too fast, too smudged.

First was the surprised and horrified gasp of the nurse as she walked into the room.

Then Killua was next to Gon, shaking him, screaming at him to wake up. To breath. To speak. To open his eyes.

The monitor that had once beeped steadily now flat lining.

The doctors rushing in, ready to pump at Gon's heart with electric shocks.

Killua brushed them aside, and took to Gon's heart with his own nen. Voltage cracked the hair. Killua slammed Gon's chest.

Killua wouldn't let go of Gon. The nurses told him to leave. To get away from his friend. They said horribly things, thought Killua.

Killua clutched his friend.

It was only when the police arrived that Killua acted. He grabbed Gon, running with him in his arms.

Killua ran.

And ran.

And ran.

Far from the city, from the hospital. Far, far away.

Into the mountains, into the forest. The earth was covered with pine needles. They crunched underneath his swift feet.

He only stopped when he felt the soft touch of that tell tale presence.

"Illumni, come out..." he croaked.

His brother materialized out of the shadows. His expression empty. Eyes, blank.

And it was then that time caught up with Killua.

Staring into his brothers bottomless eyes, the truth hit him, hard.

Gon was dead.

Gon was in his arms.

And he was dead.

Illumni stared.

Nodded.

Turned and left, the words on his lips faint and brought by the whispering breeze.

"I didn't think you would kill him, Kils."

When the presence of his brother faded away into the shadows, Killua dropped to his knees. Setting Gon gently down onto the blanket of pine needles, Killua stared at his pale, peaceful face. His eyes were closed.

Killua's vision became blurry. Water splashed on Gon's shirt.

Killua felt his head falling until it rested on his friend's chest.

The night was falling, black and quiet.

"YOU KNOW WHAT, IF YOU CONTINUE TO ACT LIKE THIS I DON'T CARE WHETHER YOU DIE!"

Killua closed his eyes. Those had been the last words he said to him. What things had he said before that?

"YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE SO SELFISH?"

"YOU'RE SO PATHETIC!"

"WHY DO I EVEN HAVE YOU AS A FRIEND?"

Killua couldn't breath anymore. He had said those things to the only friend he had ever had after he had just been willing to give his life to him.

How messed up was he?

Tears came, rolling and quiet. They were pearls of guilt.

The only noise came from the steady thump from his friend's chest. It was calm, gentle and soft. Killua found himself falling asleep to its easy rhythm. It was almost like a drum or a...

Or a heartbeat.

Killua's drooping eyes shot open. Sitting up abruptly, Killua stared down at his friend.

Gon's eyelids fluttered slightly, and his mouth twitched.

Killua took a deep breath.

Gon's eyes shot open. He arms where twitching so badly and violently that Killua was struck on the face. Blood dripped from the side of his lip. He didn't notice.

Finally, Gon took control over his arms and sat up. Stretching his arms up to the sky, he let out a long breath. Rolling his shoulders, he then preceded to arch his back like a cat.

Standing up, he stretched his legs. Jumping up and down, he seemed to enjoy the feeling of being able to move. Sighing, Gon finally looked over at a speechless Killua.

"It took forever to bribe that nurse, you know." was all he said.

Killua blinked.

Stretching his shoulders more, Gon leaned back.

"I had to talk her into cutting my pain reliever medicine. That gave me control over my body again, but it hurt like hell. You didn't notice, so it was okay."

Killua stared.

"I told her that I needed to fake dying. She agreed to that pretty quickly though. She'd apparently done it before with another patient."

Killua blinked a second time.

"Anyway, she gave me this medicine that would slow my heartbeat so much that the monitor would flat line and I would go into this semi-unconscious state... It would be as if I had died. But I could still feel and hear what was happening. God, those electric shocks hurt! You really had to go all out, didn't you?"

It was then that Killua broke out of his trance.

He ran towards Gon and tackled him to the ground in a bear hug. He didn't care about what Gon thought.

Gon was alive.

Killua murmured about how he was sorry. He hadn't meant a single word of what he had said. He had just been scared. Gon was his best friend ever. He would never leave him. He would never want him to die. He would never want Gon to go away. He was so sorry.

Killua was sort of surprised when Gon slowly hugged back.

The night was pitc

h black. The silence encompassed all, except for the breeze that rode the backs of the unseen storm clouds above. Gon could tell from just a deep breath that it was going to rain soon.

Standing up, he went over and fumbled with several leaves in the darkness, until he returned to Killua with a large umbrella that they could easily share together.

Killua started laughing when Gon sat down next to him, leaf umbrella in hand.

"What?"

Killua controlled his laughter and smiled at his friend. They had done this before. Only, the first time it had happened it had ended in utter disaster.

But when no meteors flew down from the sky and the silence remained unbroken, Killua couldn't help but sigh in relief.

Gon looked at him, his keen eyes piercing in the darkness.

"You got the map?" he asked.

"Yeah, right here." came Killua's reply.

And when it began to rain, and the soft patter of water sliding off the makeshift umbrella soothed Killua's nerves, he smiled.

This new adventure was going to be much better than the last.

Thanks everybody! I hope you like this final chapter! The queen of cliffhangers signs off...

Who knows, maybe that new adventure will be another story? Please review to convince me...

Thanks again for all the support!