Sing me to sleep 

And then leave me alone

Don't try to wake me in the morning 'cause I will be gone

Don't feel bad for me I want you to know

Deep in the cell of my heart

I will feel so glad to go  

42 - End

"Aramis! Talk to me!"

Alexis lifted my eyelids one after the other, shining a light on them as he did.

"You're overreacting, Alex," I moaned. For once, the damp ground felt cozy against my back that I just wanted to lie there and sleep. "I'm just resting my eyes."

"I said, not more than three times!" he told me off. "Do you even know how to count?"

Vincent nudged Alex out of my view. "Why're you yellin' at her? Don't yell at her!"

"Why? You yell at her all the time!"

My mouth opened and closed repeatedly. It was maybe the one time I saw Alex this aggravated.

"Exactly!" Vincent retorted. Carefully, he pushed aside the lock of hair covering my face. "How're you feeling, A? Does it hurt anywhere? Can anybody tell me what the hell happened here?!"

"You, Vincent," Alex answered. "You happened. Don't you remember anything?!"

Vincent's jaws tensed alternately. "Oh, let me think, Alex. Will I be askin' you if I remember anything?"

Belial suddenly appeared between them. Rolling her eyes, she placed each of her hand over Vincent's and Alex's foreheads to push them away from each other. Just one "Ssshh!" from her and the brothers immediately stopped arguing.

"How are you, Hun?" she asked me.

"I..." Forcibly, I opened my eyes. Past Belial's face, I could see the still dark sky, the black moon. And I kept asking myself if that meant we hadn't won just yet. If that meant I failed. "I can't move."

My voice came out thin, gravelly.

Alex's face came into view again. "Her soul... i-is at its limit, Belial. A-as long as Legion is inside of her, it will keep trying to takeover her body until it gets full control."

"W-what?" Vincent blurted out, the worry on his face was palpable. Without warning, he grabbed Alex's collar and pulled. "What do you mean? What the hell's goin' on?!"

Alex didn't fight back, but his usually shifty eyes betrayed anger.

"Her life is in danger because she saved you." His words were low, deliberate, but merciless.

Vincent's eyes widened. For anger or fear, I couldn't tell now. But his hands were shaking after he let go of his brother and let his arms fall limply to his side.

"No... no," I told him. "It's not his fault."

Vincent dropped his gaze, deep in thought as if finally connecting the dots in his head about what had transpired during the last few hours.

To be honest, I didn't want him to remember anything. I had no idea who got hurt, who died, who survived. Not that I wasn't sorry for all the damage, all the loss and the casualties, but Vincent didn't deserve to carry all that burden with him.

So I was biased. So sue me.

Before he could begin inwardly berating himself, I coerced my hand to close around his.

"I-it's going... to be... okay." My voice was barely a whisper.

Shaking his head, Vincent turned to Vladimir who had just joined us. "Heal her."

The boy gave his brother a look that was full of remorse. As much as Vincent had so much faith in Vlad's ability, I doubted any kind of healing could help me now. Vladimir could only heal the body. My body was perfectly fine. It was my soul that was beyond saving.

Vlad and I both knew that.

"I... don't think I can help her," Vlad answered, looking down.

"Try!" Vincent grabbed Vlad's shoulder and shook. "Come on, Vlad. I... I'll do anything you tell me. I swear I'd never disobey you ever again! J-just save her! Please..."

I gave Vincent's hand a squeeze, making an effort to shake my head.

"No!" he yelled. "No..."

Just then, spasms rolled althroughout my body in waves. My spine arched involuntarily, my fingers clenching tight. I could feel Legion slowly take over my body one fiber at a time. If it wasn't for Adrianna's soul acting as the inner cage that kept the tainted souls locked inside me, I was sure Legion would have already won by now.

"B-belial," I called. "Do it..."

Without hesitation, Belial took my hand.

Vincent caught her arm before she could start the ritual. "What exactly are you gonna do?"

Belial removed Vincent's hand from her arm and proceded as if nothing had happened.

"An Offering," she answered. "Aramis here is going to use her sister's soul as an Offering to Eldest."

Vincent nodded in understanding. "Legion included?"

"That's the idea..."

It seemed like Belial wanted to say something else, but she trailed into silent.

"But?" Vincent pressed on. "There's always a but when it comes to these... stuff, right?"

No one seemed to be willing to answer his question. Even Alex who almost always knew the answer to everything. So I was guessing, the answer wasn't good, whatever it was.

Belial let out one of her long trademark sighs. "Legion needs a host--a body to be able to do whatever it came here to do. Its power is keepin' Aramis' soul intact, patchin' cracks, maskin' the damage. Now, I ain't sure how much damage we're talkin' 'bout here. But if we remove Legion from her..."

I had already guessed the answer to that. I knew since the moment I made the decision to make another Offering and I made peace with that fate. Somehow, I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be.

Vincent drew a deept breath, eyes focused on me. "And if we don't?"

"It'll consume her. Aramis will be no more. Apocalypse begins again."

I saw Vincent curl his fingers until his nails dug onto the palms of his hands. It was obvious how hard it was for him to choose. But it wasn't his decision to make.

"D-do it," I told Belial. "Please..."

"There must be some other way..." he mumbled miserably.

Managing a small smile, I said, "Always the optimist..."

"I can't just let you go..."

It broke my heart into a thousand little pieces just hearing the misery in his voice. Right then, I knew my greatest regret in life would be hurting him even if I wasn't here anymore.

"I'm not going anywhere," was the best lie I could come up with.

Belial cleared her throat loudly. "If we're gone do it, we'd have ta do it now. Or it'll be too late."

Resignedly, Vincent nodded. He moved aside to give Belial some space.

"The first time we did an Offering, I made you stand in the middle of a triangular set of symbols I'd drawn on the floor," she explained. "We don't got time for that. Good thing I'd made preparations beforehand."

Automatically, Belial pushed her sleeves up. The hundreds of symbols covering her arms were all raw and bleeding as if they were traced, redrawn into her skin with a sharp object to make the fading lines clearer.

I winced not at the sight of it, but at the thought of her painstakingly carving those symbols onto her own skin. For the short period of time I had known the woman, I could no longer translate into numbers how many times she had saved me. How much she had sacrificed.

She grinned. "Time ta put these babies to use."

The Haljan placed my palm over hers, closing her eyes as she began to utter the incantations. Her voice was loud, yet, I couldn't make out what she was saying. It was as if my whole body was submerged in cold water, numbing my senses.

My hand began to glow and as it did, the symbols on Belial's arms did so too. As before, symbols lifted off her skin all at once.

She did a very good job keeping a straight face, but I could tell she was clenching her teeth together to avoid making a sound.

I braced myself, too, as the symbols got sucked into the middle of the triangle drawn on the back of my hand. Unlike before, though, it didn't hurt.

I blinked and instantly, found myself back in the white room where Eldest and I met just a few hours ago. Still, there was no floor under my feet, no ceiling over my head, no walls around me. All I could see was a tall narrow table standing a few steps away from me.

"Eldest?" I called, taking one hesitant step closer to the table. "Eldest, are you there?!"

I waited. And waited. And called. But there was no Eldest magically materializing from a whorl of colors.

I didn't know how long had passed that I had been waiting, standing there.

"You said you will accept my Offering! Where are you now?! Please, show yourself!" I stared helplessly at the triangular marking on the back of my hands. "What am I supposed to do with you now, Adrianna? I'm sorry... This is all my fault."

Before I could begin to drown in guilt, I heard a soft metallic click. The sound came from the table. Curious, I approached it and saw a wooden box. The metal latch was hoisted a little.

Perhaps, Eldest had intentionally left it unlocked for me. Perhaps, he would smite me later for touching his stuff without his permission.

Like that ever stopped me before.

As soon as I lifted the lid, the mark on my hand began to glow again. The ball of black and white light that used to be Adrianna emerged from the middle of the triangle. Abruptly, it flew over my head and flew from one direction to another as if it was trying to escape. But it only ricocheted against the invisible panels of the white room.

Eventually, it froze in midair right over the open box, trembling as in fear. Then, the box sucked the ball in. The lid flipped close, the latch bolting by itself right after.

"No..." I pulled the latch open but it wouldn't budge. "No!"

Angrily, I tried to pick up the box but I might as well have been lifting the Statue of Liberty. I couldn't believe I let my sister's soul get eaten by some evil living box.

In a matter of seconds, the white room dissolved in front of me. A stretch of starless black skies spread before me like a melodramatic backdrop.

Right then, I knew that my time was up.

I was back in the real world, lying in the dirt like a complete invalid. I couldn't move. I couldn't feel my hands, my legs. I couldn't even speak. All I could do was stare at the still-dark moon and wonder what would happen to me, to my sister's soul, to the world. To Vincent.

Eldest had betrayed us. And now, I could feel my life slowly draining out of me. In the end, after all that happened, after everything I had done and lost, I still couldn't tell if my existence meant anything.

"Is she still--"

"Shut up, Hector!"

"You're the freaking devil, Dad! Do something!"

"Maybe Noob's just pranking us."

"Hun..."

The voices felt like home, lulling me into a deep sleep. At one point, I thought I was hallucinating because I didn't think everyone would get out of this fight alive. It wasn't until I heard Vincent's voice in my head that I snapped out of my private trance.

"Wake up, A," he pleaded. "How can I take you on a vacation if you don't wake up? Come on."

One by one, I saw faces of the people I learned to care about in the short period of time I had lived as a familiar. And it warmed my heart seeing them even in my current state. But even keeping my eyes open was more than a feat now.

"No," Vincent lightly tapped my cheek. He cupped my face and lifted my head. "Stay awake. Don't even blink. Stay with me, A. Don't fall asleep. Please. Please..."

Once again, I forced my eyes open and looked at him. I tried to remember his face, his eyes. It was the one thing I could take with me to Oblivion that I would gladly think about over and over again.

"I love you," I told him through the Link when my lips failed me.

His shoulders dropped as he lowered his head close to mine. His tears showered my face and it was maybe the saddest moment of my life.

Sucking a deep breath through his teeth, he lifted his face to meet my eyes. Then, he gently touched his knuckles onto my forehead.

"You... never told me what it means when you do that..." I grumbled jokingly, but even my mental voice was now starting to fail me.

Instead of answering, he took my hand and placed my palm over the side of his face. He closed his eyes and showed me a memory.

∞

We were both in the mansion's living room. He was sitting on the floor. It was dark because all the lights were turned off. We were talking, but in his memories, our conversations were reduced to whispers.

I think this was way back when I was new in the cabal. We just got home after Vincent and I went to Carter's house where we encountered that Swarth, which, later in life, turned out to be my sister. Anyway, Vladimir and the others had gone to Centralia. Vincent was still up because he was waiting for them to come home.

I sat on the floor, beside him.

He even remembered to note the few inches of space between us. Through the darkness, he was watching me as I talked and talked. He wasn't listening much. He was counting how many times I smiled--to be honest, I didn't know I was doing it--while explaining something about the numbers in the clock and why it's only up to twelve.

"But, Thirteen is special," I said. "It's free and wild and can't be tamed. I think it's searching."

"Searching for what?"

"For its own special place."

"Hmm..." He nodded. "So... Do you think, Thirteen will ever find that special place?"

With a shrug, I said, "Someday, I guess... At least, in my imagination, that is."

"Someday," he murmured. In his mind, he knew he had already found that special place.

And when he rested his head against my shoulder and pretended to sleep, he waited until I had finally stopped talking. With his eyes still closed, he opened his mouth to say something, hesitating the next second. Instead, he decided to use the Link.

What he said was, "I love you."

But the Aramis in his memory was already too fast asleep to hear it.

∞

"I loved you first," he told me as soon as the memory had faded.

I looked at him, thinking how beautiful his eyes were when I caught a glimpse of the moon right above us. The shadow that had been cast on it was slowly, but surely fading. Its light had begun to show starting from the bottom end so that it looked like a 'U'--no. It looked more like a smile.

Just a minute ago, I couldn't move a muscle. But now, I could feel my lips pulling up involuntarily.

The moon was smiling.

And I think I died smiling, too.