A/N on the Story: This fic was inspired partly by Purple Mouse's Fushigi Yuugi fic, 'Afterlife', and partly by another Ranma 1/2 fic I can't recall. After watching the last episodes of NEXT, this idea grabbed me and wouldn't let go ^_~ It's a bit Z/A, so if you're offended by this kind of thing, too bad. And yes, I do realize that this has a veeery short beginning. I hate beginnings. -_-
Guess the POVs. It's not too hard. Each page break signifies a POV change. Mostly between two people, though the POV changes once to the 3rd-person.
I'd never really thought much about the possibility of my death. I mean, the heroine never dies in the story, right? At most, she's severely injured or something, but never…gone. The heroine's supposed to vanquish evil with the light of Justice and return victorious to her friends.
Then again, I have no doubt that Miss Lina will do just that. Although admittedly, there wouldn't be much emphasis on the 'Justice' bit.
I never knew dying would hurt that much; like having a vice constricting your throat till you couldn't breathe, or like a steel hook jabbed into your heart and violently jerked out, or like a fist crushing your soul into a million tiny fragments…
Well, it was over, at least.
Lifting my head, I took in the surroundings. Well, I tried to, anyway. Everything was so dark… and it wasn't natural, like night, where you could at least make a distinction between the ground and your foot, if you squinted hard enough. It was DARK, so dark that I couldn't even see the floor.
Or maybe the floor, like everything else here, was black as well.
It was rather scary, being there alone in the darkness, with only the sound of my breathing echoing through the silence, wondering what would happen to me, wondering what was happening to everyone else. How much time had passed? Were they all okay? What was Phibrizzo doing to all of them?
What if he killed them too?
I gave myself a mental shake. Stop it. Have faith in them; they'll beat him, and we'll all go back together and have another adventure-
But even as I tried to find comfort in those thoughts, there was still the dreaded realization that maybe I wouldn't join them for a new quest...
… ever again.
The last I remembered was the agonizing jolt that seared through my chest, the hard impact of my body against the cold floor and the absolute knowledge that my heart had stopped-
--then I woke up.
Where…
I glanced around. Nothing but black.
Where am I?
For a brief moment, it was all a nightmare. I would wake up at any moment and sit up in bed, panting hard, and I would tell myself that it was all in my head.
Okay, time to wake up.
...
Wake UP.
... Can't.
What the HELL do you mean?! If it's all a dream, I can bloody well WAKE UP, right?!
... but it's not.
This was different. This was one nightmare I couldn't-- wouldn't-- wake up from.
This is how it ends?
Was this it? The end of my quest? A death at the hands of a Dark Lord, without even striking a blow, right after holding a cooling, dying body in my arms, that life-giving breath leaving her lungs one last time…
Oh, good Ceipheid. Amelia.
She died, and I didn't even lift a finger to save her…
But what could you have done? An inner voice spoke with a note of finality. Even if she hadn't been killed at that exact moment, there was nothing you could do to prevent Hellmaster from destroying her---and you- at any time he felt like it.
Nothing you COULD do at all.
Useless.
Pathetic.
Weak.
Each word dug beneath the stone skin; searing pains drilled into my consciousness and embedded themselves as eternal brands that mocked my weakness.
If I were stronger…I could have…
I punched the ground, gritting my teeth. Helpless again, just like when Amelia was brutally injured by Gaav; when Mazenda trapped us in her astral pocket with no way out; when Halcyform toyed with us in his mansion; when a man in red robes lifted his staff with a cruel smile on his face to a naïve, foolish youth…
Too many failures, and failure came with a price.
Damn it all.
I want to be strong! Strong!
But it didn't matter any more… did it?
Both figures, each in their own part of the darkness, lowered their heads in despair.
She wept in silence.
He howled in agony.
A watcher turned away, her own heart sharing the sorrow of the two.
"How long do we leave them like this?"
"A little while more... and then we meet them once again."
~TBC