Crona's POV

I didn't really think about it until that arrow went through my abdomen and the startling, bone-shaking scream of Maka reached my ears. I didn't really think about the black blood, my black blood, skimming down my skin like ice skates or the tears flowering Maka's flushed cheeks; the cheeks that only blushed for me, the cheeks that held my head when my trapped cuckoo started in a flurry of feathers and fear. I didn't really think about hitting that hard floor of Medusa's hideout or about the resounding crunch that reverberated through my anatomy.

My vision was swimming, my limbs were seemingly numb and the never-ending bellows of Ragnarok weren't thrumming through my eardrums. I thought I heard a scuff of a boot meeting hard concrete, but I wasn't so sure. Maybe it was creepy, morbid, and wrong for a smile to break across my face as diseased blood cells seeped out of tired and aching skin. I couldn't feel anything anymore; just this numb prodding sensation at my forearms and near the back of my neck. Every now and again, there was a little dribble of wetness threatening to spill down my cheeks. Ever so slowly, one of my broken blues opened up to see a very distressed and upset Maka, her hands digging into my sides, her cheeks spewing forth tears that are so rare to see.

I opened my mouth to form some kind of words, but nothing came out but a muted burble and a mouthful of blood. My eyes crept up Maka's falling face, another line of blood slipping up and under the lines of my lips. The most sincere words I could have ever spoken to her were running through my mind like a mouse on a wheel, my lips and my breath not cooperating enough to tell her. No, Maka, don't cry. I love you, you know that. You're the only one that ever cared, that ever will care… I'll miss you. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stay by your side. Forgive me?

I knew she couldn't hear me. I knew that my words of hope and promises weren't going to reach Maka's saddened ears or heal that beautiful canary that cuddled close to my cuckoo and made this warmth spread throughout my veins that the sun could never provide. My life was slipping out of me and onto that condescending concrete all too quickly, and my body was screaming at me to let go of whatever was holding me onto this world. What was holding me onto this world?

I glanced up; my tired, misty blue eyes reaching Maka's broken, olive green ones and instantly, I knew why I couldn't just leave whatever dignity I had left on this cold, hard floor; my Maka needed me.

Reaching one of my seemingly one-thousand ton hands up to find Maka's own, a thousand and a half images shifted through my crazed brain. Maka holding my hand while walking around with all of her friends. Maka blushing at me, even though Maka never blushes. Maka brushing away all of the tears I shed into her bed, into her hands, into the very fabric of her shirt. Maka smiling that smile that only belonged to me, the smile that I cherished more than anything in the world. Maka, Maka and more Maka. Nothing else mattered; nothing else will ever matter. And now, here I am, bleeding away on Medusa's concrete floor, Maka's hand clutching to mine like it'll keep me where I am, like I won't fly away into some dark abyss that can only belong to people like me.

Parting my lips once again, I got past a single phrase, my lips forming into the smile that only Maka could muster out of me.

"I love you, M-Maka. More than anything." I heard a very harsh sob, and Maka leaned her forehead against my own, her eyes searching mine for anything, anything at all. Finally, she parted her panting lips, her voice hushed and broken, her canary once again calling out to my cuckoo.

"I love you too, Crona. More than anything. Forever and ever." My eyes closed, that smile still plastered on my face. But, before I could utter out anything more, Maka's lips found mine in a flurry. The kiss was hungry, full of emotion and raw want and need. My breath was stolen away from me, my limbs going slack, my cuckoo giving out its final calls of defeat. The last thing I felt was Maka's lips on mine, that warmth was once rushing through my distraught veins, my hands clutching onto the only thing I could call mine, the only person who would call me theirs.

Two more beats and my heart was spent.

Two more beats and Maka was gone.

Two more beats and Maka was screaming the loudest I had ever heard her scream.