Screaming. It was all he could hear; the loud cacophony of his own voice reverberating throughout the room. Sorrow engulfed his entire being, too great to put into words, and so it instead cascaded out of him like a grand waterfall, threatening to drown him in his own emotions. The body of the most important person in his life lay before him, soaked in crimson, sticky, sickening blood. Leo grasped at it with his shaking hands, feeling the warmth still lingering there, though that soon would fade away, leaving him with nothing but the coldness of his own heart and the voices that told him it was all his fault. Never forget. You did this.

It was all too much to bear. Leo felt hot tears streaming down his cheeks; his throat was beginning to hurt from the strain his aching voice was placing on it, but he no longer cared. He buried his face in Elliot’s bloody chest, hiding himself away from this wretched world that would take away his only friend; his hopes had been destroyed, wrenched from his grasp, like a fragile eggshell falling to the floor, only to shatter into a thousand delicate pieces. They were sharp, now. Whenever he moved, whenever he so much as breathed, they stabbed into him from every angle - no respite for even a single second, no escape from what he had done.

Leo had no idea how long he stayed there, but by the time the Pandora officers dragged him off of the body, he was numb and cold. Weakly, he fought to try to remain at Elliot’s side, but they were so much stronger; all he could do was feebly thrash out as he screeched incoherently at them. Slowly, they led him away from that place, and Leo was no longer seeing this world anymore. Only darkness was present now, as foreboding and encasing as the Abyss itself. No longer a world of golden, shimmering light - it was loneliness and emptiness incarnate.

He must have blacked out; when Leo came to, the room was bright, and he winced away from the light, partially shielded from its burning intensity by his glasses and unruly bangs. Two guards were posted at the door and exit of his cell, and as soon as he had begun to stir from the rough cot he had been allotted, one of them left the room, probably to inform Pandora's superior officers that their captive had awoken. Surely enough, after a few minutes the guard returned and began to escort him somewhere else now. Leo obediently followed, too dazed to fight them over it, numb and dissociating as he was.

He was at Pandora’s headquarters, but not in an area he recognized. Elliot didn’t come here often, usually busy with his studies at Lutwidge Academy or preoccupied with family business, so Leo hadn’t truly gotten a chance to explore its interior thoroughly, not that a servant like him would be permitted to do so anyway. As they walked through the halls in silence, Leo found his mind wandering back to that image that could never truly be erased from his memories now.

The realization struck him with grief all over again, and he struggled to keep his emotions under composure just as he was beckoned over to a chair facing a table, with a man sitting on the other side. The room was otherwise barren, although guards and Pandora officials were standing all around. As soon as he sat down, the stern-faced man began to interrogate him, pressing for details on the situation that had led to Elliot Nightray’s death. Recalling the memories of what had transpired were too painful, however, and broke the strain on his tightly reigned-in sorrow before he had even gotten a single word out in response.

The answer to their inquiry were his unchecked tears, and he sobbed and shook with the violent tremors of their passing; Leo buried his face in his hands and let his grief overcome him. He knew that words were being spoken to him - harshly, calmly, it mattered not. He no longer heard them. Once again he was the outsider in this foreign world, and now that Elliot was gone - he always would be. Or perhaps there was something else that could change this cruel outcome? Some way to turn back the clock, to undo all of this misery, all of this misfortune that he alone had caused. He would do anything to have Elliot back with him. Anything.

Some time passed in this state, and he was too fatigued to continue crying. The interrogation continued, but Leo stayed silent. Hours passed. But they were persistent. Of course they would want to know the connection behind Elliot and that Chain, the headhunter that had nearly wiped out the entire Nightray household. Finally, they wore him down enough that Leo did speak, but it was slowly, his throat still raw and damaged from the strain he had been putting upon it. Recollection was difficult when the foggy weariness of despair was seeping through his mind, and the impatience of his interrogators only distracted him further from divulging what he knew.

Three days passed like this - a never-ending cycle of his outbursts of desolation, versus periods of ruthless questioning. Little by little, Leo confessed what he knew of the incident... the Nightray family... Fianna’s House... Humpty Dumpty... the headhunter... Isla Yura... the sealing stone...

And...

Even though he had been knocked out unconscious for the time that Elliot had actually died, Leo had put together the pieces of what had happened. His friend and master had apparently suicided - had rejected Humpty Dumpty, the headhunter - to destroy the Chain that had taken so many lives, no longer wishing to succumb to its hold. It was all Leo’s fault - if he had never met Elliot, if he had never gone into that chasm with him to save the kids that had wandered away from the orphanage, Elliot would still be alive. It was all his fault. All his fault. All his -

"Remember, the fact that you brought him back to life... does not mean that you saved him."

"Remember that you... are the cause of all this."

Every time that this one ever-present, unchangeable fact resurfaced in his mind, Leo began to scream. A hand grabbed his shoulder, and he instinctively flinched away from it, his movement shaky and much more pronounced than he had intended it to be, causing his body to fall out of the chair. It skittered sideways, and he collapsed onto the ground, sitting hunched over in a pathetic heap, and clutched desperately at his unkempt hair, his voice once again filling the room with all of his anguish and heartache. It drowned out everything else, as if his cries could break the very chains that tethered this world to reality, bringing it all crashing down with him -

One of the members of Pandora sighed, exasperated with his antics. He didn’t understand the loss that Leo felt, and dismissively grumbled, "Again?"

"Is he mad...?" asked another, callously.

How could they know? How could they possibly ever know the pain of losing the one who is the most important to you? How devastating it is, how soul-wrenching and wholly annihilating. It felt like every fiber of his being was being ripped at the seams, threatening to be torn asunder, and here they were without a care. Oh, what it must be like to be them - for Elliot to be so insignificant in their eyes. He couldn't fathom it. His thoughts began to turn dark, then. Useless. They were useless - terrible, horrible, disgusting. Insensitive, heartless fools, all of them, and he wished with all of his might that they would vanish into the cold depths of the Abyss itself, that black wings would drag them under, endless chains wrapping around their forms -

"...Shut up.” Leo snapped, his suffering swelling into boiling pits of anger and resentment, his voice turned hostile against these people that scoffed at his misery. “Shut up! Get out of my sight! Disappear! I have no business with you! I don't care! You don't matter- nothing matters anymore!” Pandora, the Nightray family, everyone - they were all just a nuisance. Couldn't they see that? He wanted nothing to do with any of them anymore. So why were they still here, pestering him? Why couldn't they leave him in solitude, to grieve, to be alone with his unending anguish?

Leo hated this world, and everyone in it. Only Elliot had brought light into his darkness, and now that was gone. But more than anything, Leo hated himself. It was all his fault. It was all his fault!

The Pandora officials paid him no mind as he continued screaming at them, and his voice cracked with all of his internal hurt, “Elliot is dead!" There, he had finally said it. Said those dreadful words out loud, made them all the more real for having done so, solidified into this plane of existence, this accursed timeline. "Dead because of me!” Leo sobbed, the voices inside of him condemning his soul, reminding him of his every failure. He tried to shake them off, but they wouldn't stop hounding him, buzzing, droning in his ears like a swarm of insects that crawled all over him. "Go away!" he screeched, over and over - until only silence remained. And with that blessed quiet, a thought ever so clearly surfaced into his mind...

I will fix this tragedy. I will find a way to give Elliot... a life without me.

A life where he can continue to live... in the sunshine forever. His golden light never fading...

I will... undo myself.