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Something felt off here. The lights were burning in his eyes and he could feel the oppressing warmth of Gwi-Ma on his back. At the same time he could hear her voice, bright and strong cutting through the whispers in his mind. But still, as he saw her marching with confidence towards him, he couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right. Well, nothing else had felt right after his betrayal, but this was different. It was difficult to explain.
He wanted to do something, show some kind of reaction other than staring dumbly at the scene unfolding before him. But he felt frozen in place, despite Gwi-Ma's fire burning even hotter than before. He was angry, and that couldn't end well for anyone.
As the song grew in strength, her attacks also grew stronger and deadlier. And through it all she kept moving. In his direction. With hope shining bright in her eyes. He felt his heart stutter and his eyes widen slightly. That impossible woman was still trying to save him, somehow. He didn't know why she was so certain that he still could be saved after everything he did to her and to her fans.
Then Gwi-Ma shouted. It was so sudden that he didn't have time to think before all he saw was her eyes grow wide with surprise and her preparing for an attack. A raging beam of fire came down on her, roaring with all of Gwi-Ma's rage. No human was capable of surviving that! But… she wasn't only human, so she would be fine, right? He wanted to move, to go help her in any way he could, but that strange feeling of something wrong kept growing and he felt his feet take root in the stage where he was standing. Why couldn't he move?
He looked at her again and saw that her stance started to fail with her struggle to keep her defense up. But he felt in his bones that she wouldn't be able to keep that for much longer,.and her friends were still fighting the demons, incapable of coming to her rescue. He should go. But try as he might, he couldn't figure out why he didn't move.
A scream cut the air and suddenly he could move again. The burning fire had receded and he didn't need to look at the demon king to know that he would be smiling. He could feel. And that feeling was the same as before. Now he knew what would go wrong. And as he approached her with trembling legs he wished fervently that he had done something before.
Her body had fallen to the ground and he could see blood. Too much to be a good sign. The song had stopped and everything was deadly silent around them. Only her heavy breathing was audible and he saw her eyes wide with pain and the tears gathering in them.
After what felt like an eternity he finally reached her side and dropped to his knees like his strength had all left in one go. He held his breath as he went to touch her face with trembling hands.
“R-Rumi?...”
When his only answer was a cough followed by her wheezing breath, the desperation finally started to claw at his mind full force.
“RUMI!”
His hand made contact with her face and at that moment she finally seemed to notice his presence by her side. Her trembling lips started to move as if trying to form words but nothing came out of them.
“Hey, no. Don't try to talk. Save your strength now. Please!”
He knew he sounded desperate, but how else was he supposed to sound if not desperate in the face of the impending death of someone who had only tried to help him? And again he was witness to the consequences of his own selfishness and cowardice. Another life ruined because of him!
Her eyes once full of life now only held pain in them. He could see the details of her face start to blur as his own eyes gathered tears in them. One hand was supporting her head while the other searched for her hand and she tried to squeeze it, but she wasn't so strong anymore. Weak was not a word that he would ever associate with her, but now he had no other word to describe her grip in his hand. It was slippery with her hot blood.
“Please, stay with me… I’m so sorry. Stay!”
Her eyes started to lose focus until they finally lost the battle against closing themselves. He kept repeating the same words again, begging her to open her eyes, to stay with him… Begging forgiveness for something so unforgivable. Finally her hand slipped from his and fell. Everything around him had lost shape a long time ago and a cold had enveloped them. When he noticed that she wouldn't answer in any way anymore he broke down for real. He only had strength to sob while he hugged her body that was growing colder by the minute. It was like he lost his ground and all that existed was a void that was slowly consuming him.
He tightened his embrace even though all his senses started to scream that something wasn't right, that this wasn't real. His ear started to ring and a dense darkness started to crawl up towards him and her corpse until nothing else existed. He couldn't feel her in his arms anymore even though he knew that she hadn't left his embrace. He also couldn't see or hear anything else. Not the crowd that should be surrounding them, not the demons, not even Gwi-Ma.
He started to scream because nothing made sense. Maybe if he screamed he could escape this void and this empty feeling in his chest. Suddenly, after what could have been minutes, hours or even days, he jolted awake in his bed, still trembling. He could feel the dampness in his cheeks where the tears were still streaming. He looked around trying to understand where he was but he still couldn't seem to remember where he was or what happened for him to get there.
The door of his room was then abruptly opened, as if someone couldn't manage the politeness of knocking first. He looked at the source of the sudden invasion and saw her at his doorway. She looked worried, but to him it was the best vision in his life. She was alive! She was breathing and walking and reaching for him with arms that weren’t charred by Gwi-Ma's fire and bleeding out. He all but collapsed into her embrace, crying in relief and trying to prove to himself that THIS was real.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”
He didn't know what he was sorry for exactly, but he needed her to know that he was anyway. She didn't ask anything for now, just rubbed his back while he ruined her sleeping shirt with his tears.
“Hey, I’m here. It's ok. It was a nightmare.”
She kept repeating that to him until she finally felt him relax his grip on her and his shoulders dropped from their tense posture. He was still sniffing, but not sobbing anymore. Finally she felt that it was safe to end her hug to properly look at him. She held his face between her hands and used her thumbs to wipe his remaining tears.
“Want to talk about it? It's ok if you don't, I’ll understand.”
“It… It was about that last fight against Gwi-Ma…”
She waited to see if he was going to explain more or leave it like that. Either way, she could imagine some scenarios that would make him react like this. But kept talking, as if wanting to get the images out of his head.
“I couldn't do anything. I just watched as he burned you. And I didn't do anything to stop it!”
He started crying again.
“I’m sorry! I should have done something!”
“And you did! You saved me. Remember? You gave me your soul and when I found out a way, I brought you back. It's all right now!”
He hugged her again, just to make sure that it was really all right and that they were all alive. It wasn't the first time they had nightmares, but it was the first time that his dream brought the possibility of her death and not the other way around. He never felt such desperation before and he still didn't know if this was real or a dream, so he tried to focus on his senses. He could feel her breathing with him, feel her warmth and her hands in his hair. He could smell her perfume and the scent of her shampoo. He could hear Derpy whining nearby (he might have heard the commotion and come see what was happening) and the clock ticking in his bedside. He could also taste the salt of his tears. Everything felt very real to him, and his biggest proof was that he didn't feel that something was wrong.
“C-can you stay with me? Please!”
He tentatively asked. He was exhausted but he didn't want to get away from her. Still, if she refused he would understand. It wouldn't be comfortable but he would deal with it.
“Yeah, of course!”
Came her response and he couldn't help but sigh in relief. They arranged themselves in the bed comfortably and he embraced her again, hiding his face in her chest while listening to her heart beating. Her hand played with his hair while another one found his free hand and laced their fingers together.
It was like this that he finally started to relax and to forget that awful dream. He could actually believe that everything would be okay. After all, something felt right again.