A/N: I have always loved the Mystery Dungeon games, and I have been thinking about writing this story for quite a while, and I have now consolidated my ideas enough to where they can form a cohesive, intriguing story. I hope you enjoy!

Bubbles.

That was all that he saw. Only bubbles, produced by his crazed attempts to breathe. The pressure was almost unbearable, forced upon him with strength he wouldn't have imagined was possible if he hadn't felt it. His lungs were starved for air. He knew not what had brought him here, only that it seemed to be his time to perish. With a sickening lurch, everything turned to white.

He could breathe again.

Am I…alive?

He did not feel entirely complete, as if some part of him was missing. There was pressure on his ears, different pressure than that merciless void, but pressure nonetheless. A sound resonated from inside his skull, piercing his brain like a sharpened knife plunged deep into the skin.

He let out a surprised grunt of pain, failing to notice that it echoed off an unseen barrier. Over the excruciating whine of the sound, he could make out a voice, though not the words it spoke. His eyes forced themselves open of their own accord.

He could see a floating, hazy shape in front of him. He could not tell how far away it was, but it seemed to shine with a perpetual, internal glow. This was all that his senses could gather before the pain inside his head rose to an incredible pitch and the white around him faded into deep blue strokes of darkness.

With them returned the desperate need to breathe.

His body came to the realization faster than his mind did, causing an expulsion of bubbles. He was back in the airless realm he had just departed from, unprepared.

It must be my time, he thought, accepting the fact with less panic. He felt the world slide into the everlasting place of nothingness…