A/N: Wow. It's the end. It's really the end. I hope I did okay..

Songs: Paradichlorobenzene, Antichlorobenzene

Song Artists: Kagamine Len, Kagamine Rin

Author: macchi-manager

Disclaimer: I don't even own any of these songs on my iPod!

- - - R i n - - -

"You see, there is a tumor in your head that hadn't shown up in the x-rays that we took when you were first admitted, or in any that we've taken since. Until this one. This time, we used the new model and it showed. However, I'm afraid that your treatments were proven to be harmful to people with brain conditions, yours included, so the tumor has only thrived and become even more malignant."

Rin scrunched her eyes up and slowly pinched herself, hoping that this was all a dream.

Nope.

She was really going to die.

It sank in a moment later, and she did nothing. She didn't go into hysterics. She didn't start bawling or go into shock. Rin just lay where she was, on her bed, in the sterile room. The nurse looked at her in worry.

"I'm really sorry, dear, for throwing all this on you, but there's no way around it. However, I have arranged for you to stay with relatives for your...remaining...time."

Rin grimaced. Since they were letting her go, she obviously didn't have much time left.

"Um, since you don't remember...my parents disowned me. I don't have any relatives to go to."

The nurse smiled grimly.

"We have contacted a distant relative of your mother, and she has agreed to take care of you. She lives pretty close to here, so we'll be able to come over and check on you every so often. Would you be okay with that?"

Rin nodded. Maybe once she was out of this place, she'd be able to help someone else.

Rin lay on the orange bed in "Aunt Gumi's" house. The odd relation was really easy-going, and since she appeared to be a deep sleeper, Rin thought that she could get out again in a couple nights.

Once the doctors had stopped going on with the chemicals, she was gradually getting her strength back bit by bit. At the moment, she still felt a little tired all the time, but she could still move around with ease. She just wouldn't be doing any extreme activities any time soon.

The girl looked out the window at the city, brightly lit even though it was night time, and smirked. Since her dear aunt was asleep...maybe she would go ahead and go on out.

- - - L e n - - -

Len paced back and forth in front of the place that he had met up with Rin all that time ago. Maybe...maybe she would show up tonight? Len sighed. He honestly had no clue. He hadn't seen her in forever, and he definitely hadn't been able to focus on anything else besides her and schoolwork, but only because there would have been in no way possible that he would have been able to get out of his house if he wasn't passing. It was hard enough getting out as it was now.

A soft thwump sounded on the ground behind him, and he whirled around, surprised.

It was her.

Rin's face was pale and haggard, but in his eyes, she was resplendent in her white uniform dress as she fell over under one of the street lights. He immediately darted over to her side and helped her up. Len couldn't help but wonder what exactly had happened to her, to make her hand so bony. But...he didn't really care all that much.

She was with him.

She was smiling.

She was alive.

He smiled.

"Hey."

She smiled up at him, and a rush of joy flowed over him.

"Hey to you too."

An awkward silence developed, and Len shuffled his feet on the concrete for a few agonizing seconds before Rin smiled again and tugged weakly on his arm.

"Hey, Len, can we go this way? There's something that I really want to do tonight."

He nodded and let him lead her.

When they stopped next to one of the stores, she collapsed.

- - - R i n - - -

She'd dragged the boy all this way, and for what? Her head was on fire, and she knew that she couldn't get much farther on her feet. So she just decided to fall to the ground.

The boy tried to help her up, but she didn't let him. She just fell to the ground again, holding her head in her hands and squeezing it lightly, hoping that it would help with the pain. It didn't, so she just kept on doing it.

The idiot boy-Len, her subconscious mind told her, his name is Len.- Len, was telling her that she needed to get up if she was going to go where she wanted to go. She scowled at the idiot. Couldn't he see how much pain she was in? And he still wanted her to move? There was no way that was happening.

She finally subdued the pain to some degree and stood up. He was right by her side, helping her stay on her feet.

"Are you okay? You don't look very good at all..."

She forced a smile and looked up at him.

"Yeah...I...guess so."

He looked up at the dark sky. "Why are we doing this? Why are we going around and hurting people? I mean, is there a purpose or a reason? I know that I was doing it to help you, but...why did you do it?" He looked at Rin expectantly. "Or don't you know either?"

Rin laughed harshly. "You sound like you were trying to sound wise or something! Don't you think that your time could be put to better use than thinking about things? You could be out there doing them! You don't think about anything, you just do it! Just do anything and everything, anything that you could do to get rid of the pain! That's all I've done my entire life! I've done what I thought was right with no thought for the future!" Her voice cracked, and she fell down onto a seat conveniently behind her.

"I-I've had no thought...can't start now...I've gotta take it all in stride like I always have..." Len knelt down beside her.

"Is...something going on that I should know about...?" In a flash of spur-of-the-moment inspiration, Rin latched onto his neck and hugged it tightly, her blond hair seeming to become his own. "Yeah...I guess you could say that..." She took a deep breath and decided to say it.

"I'm going to die."

The news took him by shock, she could tell. His frame went stiff, and after a moment's hesitation, his hands went tentatively around her back and pressed her to his body. He shifted so that he was sitting criss-cross, and the movement pulled her onto his lap. Now that she could see his face, she saw the bright red color of his face and giggled, then leaned back so that he was supporting her back and looked at him.

"Hey, hey! Let's not think about it. I'm going to die, sure, but I accepted that a long time ago. Let's focus on the now! Let's sing, dance, laugh! Let's have fun and dance under the stars!" In a pitch that he couldn't hear, she added, "And let's have a proper burial for that cat..."

Rin stood up shakily and tried to pull Len up. "Come on! Let's go insane!"

And they certainly did.

They dragged each other through the town, to each other's houses and favorite places, and once, Rin pushed Len into the river, though he didn't push her back. (Ironically, she noted, it was more-or-less the same spot that the cat had...yeah.)

They ultimately tired out sometime early morning and collapsed on Len's pile, which he had replaced every so often so that it didn't grow things. Rin fell asleep first, thinking that she had just had one of the better days of her life.

- - - L e n - - -

Len woke up sometime before noon. He shifted, and accidentally nudged the girl beside him.

"Oh, sorry."

Nothing happened. Something was going on. He nudged her again.

"Hey, Rin, can you wake up, please?"

Silence. Something clicked in his mind, telling him that all this was horribly wrong. He felt her arm.

It was cold.

Stone cold.

Dead cold.

He slid off of the pallet. There was no way that he had any clue what to do now, so he picked her up, pallet and all. He remembered where she was staying from when they'd "visited" her aunt the night before, so he decided to head there.

As he carried her reverently, it started to rain. It wasn't until he reached the place she was staying at that he figured it out. When her aunt took a single look at the frail, beautiful, empty shell that had once been Rin and burst into tears, he realized that he'd been crying all this time.

When they called the nurse, Len could hear the sobs that she was trying to hold back professionally. When they went to her house to ask some questions about Rin's condition and just to talk, she was clinging onto her purple-haired husband like he was her lifeline.

"I'd really hoped that she would get better," the nurse wailed into her husband's shirt, "Even though I didn't like how they were treating her, I brought it up with the rest of the faculty, and they didn't listen and now it turned out like this! She had her whole life in front of her!"

Nevertheless, both Len and her aunt walked out of the house while Nurse Kamui wailed on and on with testy faces.

School was...different.

Everyone had heard about Rin, Len, and her death, and they'd all decided to avoid him. Len enjoyed the solitude that they gave him, and it gave him the time to think about exactly what was going on.

One night, a month or two after her death, after putting up with everyone and all of their sympathy, pity, and pain, he tried it again.

He tried to erase a problem.

But this time, it was his own.

They came to his house that night, with a police car and a pair of handcuffs. What with all of his past offenses, he was going to be punished.

"Mister Kagane, if these reports on my desk are accurate, you have tried to kill not only some in your school, but also yourself. Why did you do it.?

The boy allowed himself a small, sad smile.

"My friend told me that we had to erase any mistakes that we found. So...I did."

A/N: …I can't believe it's over. I'm sorry for the week-late release…but high school started, and I was starting to lose the 'spark' for this story.

I'm also extremely especially (redundantly) sorry if you're not satisfied with the ending. I understand that it probably feels quite rushed. Please forgive the frantic authoress.

I have a bad feeling that I'm gonna get trolled again…BRING IT ON! TROLLS ONLY GIVE ME THE POWER TO WRITE MORE AND MAKE YOU EVEN MADDER! (btw, it's all your fault if you don't like it. My English teacher said, "The author can only do so much. It's the reader that makes it or breaks it." So true…

Thanks to:

Elizabeth: …could we please try to stay away from insulting religious beliefs? I'm sorry, but I can't really accept that. Otherwise…I have no clue how Len does it. OMG A CLOCKWORK ORANGE DESCRIBES IT PERFECTLY! (macchi loves her Wiki…)(And I was reading Pandora Hearts when you replied. Gah, why do my favorite characters always die…) I LOVE/ADORE YOUR LONG REVIEWS!

CluelessLeaf: …whoops?

TsundereMe: Yes, I suppose it's more…evident in this one. Yes. I accept your praises. Now bring me brioche and the keys to the road-roller.

DyingRose: The song still creeps me out. But it's nice, I suppose. Thank you so much for your compliment!

chibi of evil: Wow. You reviewed all of the chapters. Thank you a bunch! They really made my day!

Campanella: Well…You're lucky that reply came to me AFTER I'd already put her in the story. Or else she'd have died by now.

Elizabeth (again): Yeah, I understand. Sorry for the long wait. I sincerely hope it was up to your expectations…

Everyone: Thank you all SO MUCH for reading, reviewing, and favoriting my story. I appreciate the warm and welcome feedback, as well as the criticism, which I took with a grain of salt. I'm working on more stories for both xUNLIMITEDx and my personal account, which I hope you'll all look for and enjoy.

Macchi-chan OUT!