This wasn't supposed to take so long...sorry. I got sick again. but I've been thinking...it might be time for me to end this story. Fan fic. Whatever you want to call it. It's long... And who knows? If it's an off day, I might just start a new one! Maybe. I haven't decided yet. So maybe not. but update!!! He stood there, taking her hit. His head snapped back from the force of the blow, then slowly moved back forward. His nose was bleeding, the blood moving in rivulets down his face. She watched dispassionately as some blood moved around his mouth and some trickled over his lips and smoothly flowed into his open mouth. He was breathing hard, glaring at her as he pushed the air out of his mouth. He would not, could not, let her best him. He stood there watching her for a while. She looked at him, then glanced around at their surroundings, then back at him, taking everything in. At the edges of the forest--the darkly perfect forest--set rocks and fallen branches. They were nearby...yet so far away. She couldn't move toward them...he would notice...too obvious... He lunged at her, taking her by surprise. Ramming her with his shoulder, he knocked her down. Her breath whooshed out of her as she fell and he straddled her lower torso. "You," he told her, sitting up straight, staring into her eyes, "are supposed to be dead. I worked..." She tuned him out as he rambled on. His voice barely penetrated across her mind, was but a whisper in her subconscious. She saw her surroundings in her mind and wondered how she was going to get to them. He just needed to sit back farther... "You disgust me," he told her and spit by her head. "You are the most foul, vile, low-down, pathetic excuse for a woman..." As he spoke, he continually leaned back, farther and farther, as if she were repelling him. Just a bit more... "And I cannot BELIEVE that you can just parade around with your annoying ass voice that disgusts me to no end..." He sounded like an agitated prima-donna with his annoying ass voice and...there! Zephy swiftly brought her legs up and hooked them around his neck. She yanked them back down as he clawed at her. He scored his fingernails down her legs, but she didn't feel the pain. She was so focused... Her legs landed on the soft, cushiony grass with him in beneath her calves. She began scrambling to her feet, ready to face her enemy. She felt him pushing at her legs, attempting to shove her off him. She felt his hands grab onto her ankles, trying to spin her off him so he could get to her, could get his revenge. But as she was getting up, she heard a distinct crack...heard a gurgle, as if someone was straining for air...felt flesh and bone give way under her foot. It felt as if minutes, hours were passing by, as if it had been days since she had lain eyes on this man again. But it had only been a few minutes. This moment, however, seemed suspended in time. She jumped up, but...he never did. He lay there, and then she saw. Noticed. His neck was completely crushed. It looked...abnormal. His head was tilted at an odd angle, and he was looking at nothing. A sneer of hatred was frozen on his face. It was...he was dead. Again. Forever. The finality of the moment, of her sister's and friend's killers death...it hit her. She'd gotten her revenge. The world seemingly collapsed around her as she fell and began to feel the shimmering around her, felt herself flying through time.
"...Zeph? You...you're...you aren't supposed to...why...?" A voice was speaking to her, a familiar voice, one she would never forget. That she couldn't forget. It couldn't be...she'd just left him... "ZEPHORIA! Answer me!" She almost smiled. It sounded just like him...his old bossy, yelling self. But it wasn't Zeeke. It was...him. Again. How, she didn't know. But she knew it was him. She felt a thud beside her as he landed by her head. She felt him grab her, shake her, trying to get her to respond. But she wouldn't. She'd lay there, let him think she was gone forever, that she was no longer a threat to him and that she wouldn't try to kill him again. "Fuck. Shit. Answer me. ZEPH!" He grabbed her shoulders and began shaking her. But...there was a difference... He acted like Zeeke. He sounded like him, too, worried about her... Why...? "Zephy, please! Please..." As she listened, his voice cracked. "Zeph..." he whispered. His head bowed. This wasn't like him...he was supposed to be calm, cool, and collected. That was her Zeeke. The one she depended on. But this wasn't that Zeeke. And this wasn't...him. It was...something else. None of the above. And then...a yell pierced her ears. Her eyelids flipped open swiftly as he yelled, its sound piercing her heart. It was full of sorrow, of sadness, and not at all like the Zeeke she knew. "Zee!" she yelled, putting one hand on his knee (she hadnt realized he was THAT close) and her other on the ground on the other side of her, bracing herself as she began to sit up. He stopped yelling and jerked his head down, peering at her. "Zee, why the hell are you trying to wake the heavens and -- FUCK!" she yelled and fell back. "When the hell did you get so close?! Dammit! Can I not have some breathing space?!" She glared at him as she rubbed her forehead. "And of course that didn't hurt your hard ass head, because it'd take a brick to hurt your thick ass skull!" "Zeph?" he asked quietly, still peering down at her.