When most people get nervous, they say they have butterflies in their stomach. These were not harmless, winged insects. These were guns. Trying to shoot me, kill me from the inside, trying to bring me down before I even had a chance to attempt to claim my victory. My right…my revenge.

The silence allied the guns…the dead silence…it was terrible, horrifying. Something in the forest had to make a sound. A cricket…running water…a twig snapping…a footstep. Even the thunder from before had shut up. One little crunch on the leaves was all I needed to be able to tell where he was.

But there was nothing.

Damn…. For a moment, I considered the fact that he might’ve just left. The wood’s floor was covered in leaves, twigs… the trees were more scattered than before. From whatever direction he came from—and he could’ve started coming from any direction—I should’ve been able to hear him. How was he so freaking quiet?

I tensed the grip on my long, silver sword. I remembered first getting it, I thought it was incredible—strong, sharp, beautiful, the most amazing thing in the world. Now, it looked dull, dirty, dishonorable, vulnerable…weak.

My white-blonde hair matted to my pale, sweaty, forehead, to the back of my neck…. I paced slowly, trying to listen, trying to use every one of my senses to feel him coming for me. I couldn’t. I continued pacing, shuffling my feet; I felt like if I stopped, he would jump at me. I felt like if I stopped the silence would take over even more, and it would drive me completely insane.

No…no, damn it…I couldn’t let that happen. That would not happen; I could not die that way. I would die avenging her, not waiting for the fight. That would be weak, disgraceful.

“Riku, I told you not to overdo it. When you’re fighting, think. Think about what you’re fighting for, if it’s worth it. Don’t pick aimless battles, if you do, you’ll get hurt…like now,” Meera lectured, lightly pressing ice to my bruised skin. “You’re covered in dirt, you’re wounded, bleeding…”

I remembered Meera’s rant clearly when I had lost my temper and picked a pointless fight. She had tended to all my cuts, helped me, done everything she could to make me feel better…. And then that amazing feeling when you look into someone’s eyes and you know—you just know they’re staring back, you feel so much stronger. I could remember clearly, her bright, green, beautiful eyes—my blue ones must’ve dulled terribly next to them. But she continued to stare into them, didn’t she? And that’s what felt amazing…She was so much better than me, she was incredible, beautiful, controlled, sensible, loving…

…dead. Dead and it was my fault, wasn’t it? I had lost my temper again, attacked the rest of his “friends,” and he had gone after her when my back was turned.

The boy collapsed to the ground as my fist collided into his face once more, and I heard a scream. The most painful scream I’d ever heard—her blood spilled to the ground…and he was running already. I wasn’t sure whether to run to her, or to catch him. But I rushed to Meera and dropped down next to her….

“Damn it…no…no….” I whispered, in a terrible state of shock. “NO! God damn it, I’ll kill you! I swear to god, I will kill you!”

My lip quivered as I remembered the words erupting from the back of my throat, with an anger I didn’t even know I had.

But I had a reason for the fight this time. He had killed her…he had sent her to heaven.

And he was going straight to hell.

I stopped moving my feet, letting the silence fill my head—but only for a split second. As soon as I stopped, Licinius leaped down from a branch, trying to plunge his smoky-black sword—almost twice as long as mine—into my neck. With one quick movement, I turned and let his sword hit mine.

Over and over, he tried to hit, I blocked…he went for every vulnerable spot, my legs, my head, wherever my sword wasn’t. He thought he was quicker than me—and maybe that was true; I couldn’t keep this up much longer. I needed something else…some way to step away….

I felt myself almost back into a tree. I dodged swiftly as he was about to strike and let his blade puncture the rough bark.

By his groans of frustration, I could tell he thought this was going to be easy. He thought all he would have to do is work up my nerves and strike from behind.

I wasn’t that weak.

I tried to hit him from behind, through his mane of long, black hair and into his back as he tried to yank his own sword out of the tree.

Damn it I was slow—how could I miss that shot? He spun around and tried to swing at me again, with all this strength. My weak, dull, horrific sword clashed in midair with his with such force I staggered back a step. One foot behind the other, I pushed with all my strength for defense, but him…he didn’t seem to be giving it his all. Here I was, using up all my energy while he was holding back.

From here, I could actually see how much bigger he was than me. I began to wonder faintly if I had made a terrible mistake—his muscles were huge, he was almost a foot taller than me, he looked at least three…four years older than me. His own sword began to get closer to him and I gave a strong push as if to say “is that really all you got?”

Of course, it wasn’t.

As he glared up at me, I saw his face tighten in concentration, in strain. He tightened his muscles and began pushing forward harder. Much harder.

I had challenged him too much.

Our swords began coming closer to me, to my head. He even started pushing toward me with his feet, walking against me as I tried pushing back, but my feet just slid back in the dirt. As his sword pushed against mine, he began to angle the edge toward my throat. I felt a nervous drop of sweat run down my neck.

My arms shook violently as I struggled to push the point away. I wasn’t strong enough.

His blade began to push into my throat, deeper, and deeper until it broke my skin, mixed my blood with salty sweat.

I’d expected it to hurt more. I could barely feel it, all I could think of then was his pain. Of what I wanted to do to him.

Adrenaline took over me as I gave a great shove and plunged my sword into his chest. Though not without him plunging his black sword into my stomach.

The pain shot through me just then, like poison… The unbearable, excruciating pain hit me in unison with the rain. The rain hit us hard suddenly, as if it wanted to join—or stop— the fight.

I squinted my eyes to see Licinius. He looked like he was trying to fight the pain like I was, his eyes shut tight and his teeth clenched. Quickly, I removed my sword and again stabbed him—this time in his throat.

Licinius released an even greater scream that pierced my ears. He began to blindly twist the sword that was through my stomach, building up more agony.

“…think about…if its worth it…don’t pick aimless battles….”

This is worth it, isn’t it? It is. I know it is….

No. what’s the point of this now, where’s this going to end up?

With him dead; I swore I would kill him.

This time I removed my sword from his throat and forced it just under his chin, so that it drove straight through his head, coming out just above his ear.

It wasn’t just the rain blinding me anymore. My blood…I was losing too much blood. A wave of nausea swept through me, giving me a headache. I could hardly see anymore, everything looked so blurred….

Weakly, I slid my sword out of him. He was dead. I did what I needed to.

I let my sword drop from my hand and collapsed on the ground. It hurt…it hurt so much….

I was dying. I had to admit it to myself. I was dying.

I tried as hard as I could to stay with my body; I fought to hold on to everything I still had.

“Think about what you’re fighting for…if it’s worth it….”

I already knew I was dying. It wasn’t worth it to fight it, was it? After all Licinius was already dead. That’s all I wanted. And death didn’t seem so scary anymore. Not as scary as it would’ve seemed only weeks ago. I wasn’t leaving anyone…everyone still alive would be fine without me. And it hurt more to hold on…to fight….

“You’re covered in dirt…wounded…bleeding….”

I could feel her. My god, I could feel her voice with the rain, as it surrounded me, covered me, suffused me…. It reminded me of how good it felt it be with her. It tasted sweet, so sweet…like revenge, it was incredible….

I looked over, one last time, at Licinius. I could see the hole in his head that my sword had made. His eyes stared blankly toward me, not seeing.

Pleased with myself, I let go.

A/N: Yeah, so... I got a bit of inspiration after watching Final Fantasy VII (Advent Children, though i have yet to play the video game...) Feedback on this would be nice, I don't really know how it turned out. Tell me if it seems like it got a little lost or pointless when they started fighting, if it was too much, too dramatic and whatnot.