Clouds invade my vision, and I flinch. Pain explodes out of my side, and I lose my mind. I'm floundering, lost, in this pain. I feel weakness seeping into my bones, and my knees start to buckle. 

I grapple, reach out, and manage to regain my mind. Just in time, to reach out, and snag Mir's arm, and drag him down with me. He tumbles, off balanced, suprised, and land on my back, knocking the breath out of me. But I don't need to breathe, right now. I don't need to feel the pain, and I push it to the side.

Mir's arm is already splayed across my chest, pinning me to the floor. I reach out, with one hand, and dig my nails into his skin until he flinches. Strength, just an ounce, leaks out of his arm, but it's enough for me. I sit up in a flash, and draw my knees in, holding his arm in place for just long enough that I can turn and let fly a rock, from close range, into his cheek.

He hisses, his head knocked back a few inches from the strength of the blow, but his hands come up, and one clasps around my neck, wrapped from the front to the back, and he squeezes. I gasp, my lungs suddenly dead, miles away, but I don't need them. I only need to win this.

I punch him squarely in the jaw, in the cheekbone, in the eye. He grunts but his hold on my neck, getting tighter and tighter by the precious second, is still solid. I'm aiming more wildly now, lack of oxygene and the pain from my side flashing my vision blue and yellow, and I can see Mir's smirk. I punch desperately at his face, but aim too low, and my fist catches him on his pale throat. He flinches, pain flashing across his eyes, and his grip loosens. 

That's all the opening I've ever needed.

I push off the ground, rolling to the side, and pin Mir's legs and arms before he's retrieved his wind. My knees digging into his thighs, I simply turn my head aside as Mir, rage battling fear on his face, spits blood up at me. He growls, fighting, but my grip is too strong, too steady. 

Finally, I feel the tension leave his muscles, and he stares up at me, arrogance flickering like flame in his dark eyes, even as he's trapped, even as he's beaten. Mir was always a fighter. 

"You'll never do it, Key." I narrowed my eyes at him. 

"You don't know me." 

He just smirked. "Yes, I do." 

I study him. Bruised, bleeding, but defiant to the very end. He reminds me of myself, in a way. In the way that the world was, and still is, against him, and how much he hates it. How much he wants the world to be on his side, although I know that never happens. The world is never truly on your side. 

How much he longs to be powerful. How much he fights and how much he gets in return, which is next to nothing.

How much he wanted to feel appreciated, so when they, whoever they are, came for him, he was probably more than happy to go. More than happy to feel needed. He wouldn't know what they planned to do, what they had planned to solidify his heart and darken his blood and deepen his eyes. 

But he isn't the same. He isn't the Mir I used to know. 

I lower my face until I'm staring at him, squarely in the eyes. "I am not the same person you met three years ago, same as you. But you changed for the worse, while I changed for the better." 

And then, quick, so only the beginning of Mir's suprise, his fear, his vulnerably appears on his face, I rip the knife out of my side, and the tip meets his throat, and the tip meets his blood.

I retreat quickly, not wanting to see, because I know I will see Mir in the eyes of the dying stranger on the ground. But it will be quick, because a knife to the throat is quick, and I am not so cruel as to hit him in the stomach. 

With the unstoppering of my wound, the blood gushes out, and the pain rises anew, but all I do is press a hand to my side. Time is too crucial, now, to waste. I ignore the scratchy, painful, gasps of breaths that I have to take, I ignore the dull aching of my heart, I ignore everything. It doesn't exist. It will not help me now. 

I had forgotten Zelo before, but now I stride towards him. He cowers, eyes seeking the body of his hyung before flitting back to me, and landing on my eyes. I take my hand off of my side and press Zelo's shoulder into the concrete wall behind him, smearing his shirt with red and drilling into his eyes with my own.

"So, do you wanna tell me why the manor was alive, why the manor was on fire with me in it, why you were not in the manor at the time of the fire?" I'm quiet, knowing that he's weak, that my presence will scare him enough, so I don't need to test my weakened throat now.

He his lips, searching behind me, but coming up with no one to save him. "I'm sorry, hyung," he starts, voice soft and whimpering. "But employer ordered me to-"

"Employer?" I interrupt him, more suprised than anything.

"Um, yeah. So... I did, and then he said to go here, so... I did."

Why would he do that? I could have died. Two of his best assassins could have died. He wouldn't risk that much. He wouldn't do that, but apparently he will.

I meet Zelo's eyes. "Why would you do that? I was inside. You knew I was inside. You knew T.K was inside. So why?" 

Zelo's trembling, but I don't waver. "I'm sorry, hyung, I really am. I'm sorry..." 

I consider him. "Do you want to make it up to me?"

"Yes!" 

"Okay. So if you help me free the king, you'll be forgiven."

He was torn, so torn, I could see it. 

"But if you don't..." I trail off meaningfully, and he bites his lip.

"Okay. Okay." 

Good. "Good. Come on." 

I nudge him ahead of me, and he stumbles, but starts walking. He glances back over his shoulder to make sure I'm following, as he headed deeper into where I used to live, leaving the body of the boy I used to know behind for the trapped boy that I'm risking everything for.

Okay, so I'm sorry for the long wait. But I plan to update a lot this week. 

Also, I know, it was kind of mean to make Key relate to Mir right before he kills him, but I wanted to show just how strong Key really is b/c I felt I didn't do that well enough before. 

Thanks for reading!