[Xÿæñ]

The darkness enveloped me like a frozen blanket of heavy ice, burying me in an empty abyss.

I couldn't move. I could, but every shift caused each of my limbs burning agony that made me want to lay there and die. I felt like I was dying, each part of me weakening until I could barely tell if I was whole.

It's too dark. For all I knew I could just be closing my eyes, looking into a world I couldn't see until I just opened them. But try as I did, I couldn't open those eyes. Those eyes didn't belong to me any longer.

I feared what I may see from those eyes.

Move. An itching part of my mind attempted to push me onward. Laying here and dying does nothing. The one you care about most is out there in danger - and you know what happens to him when he is alone.

I know. I know. I can't. There's nothing I can do.

The thought of Praxus in my mind brought tears to my eyes. I'm sorry, my love. I can't come for you... I'm trapped.

I'm so sorry.

It's over.

-=+=-

[Praxus]

"Gradient!"

I stepped through the wall, trying to say the damned name without a tremor in my tone. I felt the presence of Akhet beside me, though she was still invisible and trapped in some other plain beyond.

The house seemed colder than usual, that hit me quickly. It was freezing, an arctic winter inside the small space. A pall of darkness seemed to cover the room in a foreboding dread, sending a sense of catalepsy through my body as I stepped into the seemingly empty room.

I looked around from my place, frozen at the doorway. No one was there. I didn't see anyone. I didn't hear anyone. Where is he?

"PRAX-"

Cold fire stabbed into my neck before Akhet's warning could be uttered, bloody black blades of merciless intent suddenly wrapping around my throat like a snake and holding me in place as a sinister laugh of dark evil rose from behind me.

"Look who decided to show up."

The words were a gleeful hiss in my ear as I screamed in agony, my right eye closing as blood erupted from four fresh, parallel trenches now carved into my skull from my jaw to the already present black gash on the side of my head. My right hand flew to my eye, my left unclenching as the item I was holding dropped to the ground with a metallic clatter against the old wood. I didn't try to grab it, and neither did Gradient. Black, inky blood dripped through my fingers, my chest rising and falling rapidly in a sudden panic to breathe.

Crap- heal, heal, heal, COME ON, HEAL ALREADY! I thought we couldn't get permanently injured!

But the wound showed no signs of healing, the blood flow no signs of stopping very quickly. What in bloody hell-?!

A hand once again grabbed me by the neck and lifted me with ease to eye level - which happened to be a bit shorter than me. That white slit cut deeper than his claws into the wound over my eye as Gradient grinned at me.

"Welcome home, Praxus," Gradient spat my name like venom with a twisted smile on his face as I struggled in his grip. "So nice of you to join us!"

"L-let me go!" I clawed at his arm with my fingers, my fear causing the words to burst from my mouth involuntarily. There goes the confidence facade.

Gradient only laughed. "Silly, silly Praxus. Why did you come back here? Finally wish to embrace your fate?"

I couldn't speak. Fear froze my limbs, my hands wrapped desperately around his arm trembling in terror. Blood still poured from my open wound, the reason I could only see from my left eye at the moment. He hadn't cut into my eye, thank god, so I'd be able to see later.

What later? You're flirting with true death himself.

Akhet was yelling something in my head. Despair and panic edged her tone, but I couldn't hear anything she said. My mind was focused on the deadly hand snaked around my throat, the sharp, bladelike teeth that could cut me apart with one swift bite.

Another presence entered the room. My mind went deathly silent. An aura I knew, one I could recognize even in the depths of a gargantuan crown.

Gradient knew it, too. His lips closed over his teeth, pressed in a tight smirk before speaking.

"Xyan. So nice of you to join us."

His words struck like a knife. My eyes turned away from the psychopath's face and caught the eye of the blue spirit that had just then entered the room. A bright blue slit cut into my heart. Cold. Unrecognizing. That red scribble seemingly animated over his face madly wound around his hidden eye.

Xyan didn't speak. He tried to, his lips parting and revealing sharp, black teeth similar to Gradient's, but no sound escaped his mouth. His eyes darted between Gradient and I, no emotion sparked in his gaze. His tail twitched every now and then.

Gradient tossed me to the floor in front of him, off to the side where I'd been standing when I came in. I didn't move, my limbs were lead. The bleeding of my eye had ceased slightly, so I could partially see through a dark, wet, red-tinted film through my right eye. It stung. A lot. Pain still throbbed in my head where the scar lay.

"There. You couldn't find him, now he's found us," Gradient said to Xyan, a satisfied flick of his tail evident in the corner of my vision. "He's yours now.

"You know what to do."

-=+=-

[Xÿæn]

Praxus...

He was near. I felt it. I felt a warm energy inside of me, bringing something of peace to my cold insides. My tail twitched. I need to move. He's in danger.

There's nothing I can do. Gradient is too strong, too strong to kill.

There must be some way.

There is not.

Would Praxus come back without reason?

No. But I know he'd do anything for some form of company when he's as hopeless as he must have been.

There must be some way to defeat Gradient... he may know it.

I can't be sure of that...

It's the only chance I have of maintaining this life we've built...

The only chance.

And so, with a spark of hope in my heart, I opened my eyes.

-=+=-

[Praxus]

Xyan approached me slowly, tail swaying and twitching with his steps.

I suddenly became wary of the object I'd been carrying near my right hand. Obviously I'd dropped it, and it was barely in reach of my now blood soaked fingers. The object that could save me. Save all of us.

Grab it, come on, grab it!

But my limbs were frozen in fear as Xyan came closer under Gradient's pleased watch. Xyan stood over me, standing up until he knelt down by my side. I was paralyzed, frozen by his grip as he suddenly grabbed my wrist with roughness, yet, at the same time, gentle care.

"You trust me?"

He whispered to me. I saw something in his eyes, contrasting from the cold dispassion of before.

I couldn't hide the shaking stutter in my quiet voice. "X-Xyan...? C-can you hear me?"

He didn't reply. His eyes were cold and collected, yet not as harsh as they were, and revealing close to nothing. Gradient waited just out of sight of me, patiently awaiting my demise and, soon following, Xyan's.

Xyan's gaze quickly darted to Gradient, then just as swiftly back to me. His left hand was laid on my chest, frigid as ice against my skin even through my shirt. He laid it still there as our eyes met, fear gathering in my mind as his sharp glare pressed blades into my heart.

His hand fell into my chest, his claws finding my core.

As his fingers touched it a breathtaking pain coursed through my veins, fire burning through my limbs and acid pouring through my insides. A strangled cry rose in my throat, my lungs suddenly collapsing in on themselves and refusing to take any air yet screaming for it. A small movement of his hand, and the same pain exploded once again in my chest, snaking tendrils of agony through my flesh. Tears spilled from my eyes, black as ink and colder than ice. I attempted to cease the agonizing screams from my throat, however they flowed without consent from deep inside of me, a twisted cacophony of agony.

And suddenly it was gone, just like that.

And my own screams were replaced by someone else's.

-=+=-

[Xyan]

My fingers trembled, that surging, sickening glee coursing through my veins as a pained smile broke across my face. Gradient screeched in agony, a shocked, furious expression on his face as he stared in utter disbelief at the knife in his chest, the very knife used to bring his damned, cursed spirit into this world. His eyes darted between the weapon and me, standing with my hands on the grip in his chest.

"You..." Anger boiled in his seething voice. "What is..."

I allowed a small, satisfied flick of my tail. "Goodbye, Gradient."

I tore the knife from the stab wound in his chest, tearing it open further as glowing, colorful orbs began to rush out in a gushing river of color. Gradient cried out in agony as he was jerked forwards by the motion, the souls he'd consumed over the weeks still bursting through the open wound for freedom. Quickly they diminished, only two lingering by - a red one and a smaller yellow one, eagerly taking back their regular forms next to Praxus and helping him to his feet.

Gradient, severely weakened, now laid on the ground. He breathed, but as if the air simply left through the hole in his chest once again, he seemed to struggle. I looked down at him, barely realizing the grin that had broken over my face. The pleasure I felt was indescribable, a pure happiness I had never felt in my afterlife. Ever.

Xyan, don't fall into it. Don't. Kill him and be done with it.

I shook the look from my face, and, in the blink of an eye, Gradient's body disappeared from beneath me. I blinked in surprise, looking at the floor where he'd five seconds ago been laying. Gone, any trace of him completely disappeared.

What in bloody hell...

"X-Xyan?"

I turned around, suddenly finding the ability to change back to my usual form. I did so, and finally met Praxus's eyes. Suddenly all thoughts of Gradient left my mind as I dropped the knife and threw my arms around him. Praxus stood there, surprised for a second before returning the embrace.

"I'm so sorry..."

"Hey, it's okay, it wasn't your fault."

I was unsure of his reply, however I was simply too overwhelmed with relief to respond. There wasn't a murderer breathing down our necks anymore. Gradient's gone. Akhet and Aiko are back.

We're all safe...

-=+=-

Or so you think. :)

1874 words