Setting: Sometime after Ikuto first transforms into Death Rebel

Character(s): Amu Hinamori, Ikuto Tsukiyomi, Tadase Hotori

We are Buono!: MY BOY

"No! Tadase-kun, please, can't you see that Ikuto needs your help?" Amu Hinamori was crying whilst transformed as Amulet Heart, with Miki and Su floating somewhere behind her. She was in the park in the middle of the night, the stars brightly lighting up the night sky despite Tokyo's smog. She was on her knees, reaching out towards Tadase with one hand, and gesturing wildly at a chained-up and bleeding Ikuto transformed as Death Rebel with the other. A few feet behind Ikuto was Kazuomi, who was grinning like a madman yet remaining silent as he held up a tuning fork that glowed purple.

Tadase was transformed as Platinum Royale, and his eyes were red from crying as tears streamed down his cheeks as he said, "No, he betrayed me... Why should I help him?" Tadase backed up slowly, letting his tears flow as he continued, "I thought of him as a brother, and he betrayed me! I- I-" at this Tadase collapsed and started sobbing.

Amu watched Tadase cry and her heart broke for him. She tore her eyes away from him and glanced back at Ikuto briefly, hanging from the chains with his scythe as if he were a marionette. Her eyes welled up with tears from the sight, and she started crying all over again. She tore her eyes away and hung her head, clenching her hands into fists as they dug into her lap.

There were still so many things she didn't know about Ikuto's past, about Tadase's past, about Utau's past... She felt guilty for betraying Tadase's trust and taking Ikuto in, yet she also felt incredibly guilty for kicking Ikuto out. Who else could he have possibly turned to? Wouldn't turning to Utau only get her involved in Easter again? Tadase still couldn't forgive him, and his parents were definitely not an option.

There was still so much about the situation she didn't understand, but she did understand this: that Ikuto was suffering, and she needed to free him. Hadn't Tadase agreed to help her out earlier? After using Platinum Heart? She couldn't remember.

Either way, Ikuto needed Tadase's help, too. But, seeing Tadase like this made her weak, seeing them both suffer so much drained the fight out of her. She wanted to help her boys so much.

With this in mind, Amu looked up again towards Tadase, who was still crouched on the ground crying, and said in a small voice to him, "Please, Tadase-kun?"

Tadase shook his head without bringing his head up to look at her, and simply stood up slowly. His crying had stopped, and now his mannerisms were eerily mirroring that of a child with an x-egg, as if he were possessed. He sounded utterly defeated, all of his emotion drained out of him, as he said, "I can't."

With that, Amu was forced to shield her eyes briefly when a bright light was emitted from an explosion of sorts. When she looked back, Tadase was disappearing, turning into a cloud of white feathers starting from his feet. His red eyes pierced her soul as he said in a flat and possessed tone of voice, "I can't."

"No, please, Tadase-kun, stay, please!" Amu begged, frantically crawling over to Tadase as the remainder of his body, and eventually his head, too, dissipated into a cloud of white feathers.

"Don't bother," Ikuto's just as defeated voice came floating to her from behind her, and she whipped around to see the black feathers falling off his jacket in sync with his blood. His head twitched in her direction as a trail of blood stained his skin starting from the corner of his mouth, his neck wrapped in a chain and his eyes completely empty. "With all I've done, who would want to save me? No one. Not even you."

Amu frantically shook her head, and rushed to get up towards Ikuto, tripping in the process and landing sprawled out on the ground.

She looked up at him from her spot the ground as she exclaimed, "That's not true!" She shakily stood up, and even stumbled a bit. Surprisingly, Miki and Su hadn't said anything, and she wondered if they were even still around before steeling herself with as much confidence as she could muster.

She still shook a bit as she said as firmly as she could, "No, that's not true! It was wrong of me to kick you out when you needed a home, and I'm sorry for that! I'm the one to blame for getting upset, not you."

She stopped briefly to wipe her tears with the back of her arm, and looked at the stains they left as she added, "Yeah, and it also might have been wrong of me for not properly listening to your worries..." She shook her head and looked up at Ikuto, facing him, chains and all, as she said, "I'm sorry! I was ignorant, and in the dark, and I didn't think to ask or understand, and I'm sorry for that!"

Ikuto simply dropped his head and let it lay limp as he replied with death in his voice, "I was the one who didn't explain. It's my fault. What would anyone need to save me for?"

Amu shook her head again in response and clutched her hands close to her heart as she replied, "No, I was the one who didn't listen, so of course it's ok if you can't tell me about everything. I can't save you on your own, but I'll try my best, because it's the least I can do."

She took a few steps closer to him and saying, "Being gloomy adds even more suffering. It'll be hard, and it might be too much to ask, but please, ride on. It's a waste for you to carry on with these heavy feelings."

She took in a shuddering breath, and took one last step towards Ikuto, placing a hand on his right forearm, which was clothed in his Death Rebel outfit and restricted with chains. "I know about how you can't say things like 'that's not right' even if you wanted to... You hear, spread, and have rumors spread about you... and you had a worry-filled youth, but... Don't you want someone to say that you're the best? It's lonely at the top, right? That's not your path, right?"

She looked up at him with tears on her eyes, and Ikuto slowly moved his head so that his eyes met hers as she said in a weak voice, "Don't you want to have someone congratulate you for the first time in your life?"

"I-" Ikuto's previously blank eyes began to brim with emotion as the world around them began turning into a mountain top with a sky that had the sun covered up with clouds. He took a panicked step back, dropping his scythe, the weapon turning into his violin in the process. A few pebbles beneath his feet tumbled down the steep slope, and Ikuto looked back to see Kazuomi still standing there, still holding the glowing tuning fork with a menacing smile on his face.

Seeing Ikuto begin to crack, Amu gained more confidence, yet still brimming with emotion. A slow smile came to her face, as the wind blew made her hair and clothes flutter, "Do you feel that? The wind? Today's wind will only blow today... If you let yourself feel today's breeze, it feels really nice, right?"

She stretched, letting herself bask in the wind as Ikuto watched with a curious expression on his face. She moved to stand next to him, not concerned about the steep rocky slope, as she said, "Because it's a digital world, people are careless and they forget their true selves... But, you're not like that." She turned to face him again as she said sadly, "They're taking your true self away from you."

Hope began shining on her face, however, as she added, "But... Someday things will turn around, and now's the time. Someone who wants to hold hands is waiting somewhere, and we're right here." Amu gazed out over at the view from atop their mountain to see all of her friends at the foot of the mountain, even a teary-eyed Tadase, hugging himself and but looking up at Amu and Ikuto with a new hope in his eyes.

Ikuto watched the scene with awe, amazed at the prospect of even being saved. When he looked to his left, however, he still saw Kazuomi standing there menacingly with the tuning fork. He faltered again, and Amu noticed.

She simply closed her eyes, letting the wind flow around her as she said, "We'll save you, and with our strength, you can even change the feeling of being at someone's mercy into something you like." She opened her eyes and asked Ikuto, "What if everything was here for you? What would you do?"

Ikuto blinked, looking down at the group of friends at the foot of the mountain, and back at Amu, who was changed from earlier, as if she, too, were motivated by her own speech. Ikuto let the beginnings of a tentative smile tug at his lips as he closed his eyes and let the wind caress his body, "I'd-"

"Serve Easter for eternity!" Kazuomi boomed from behind Ikuto, and the blue-haired teen clutched at his head as Kazuomi used the tuning fork to bring Ikuto to his knees.

Amu was growing frantic once more as she shouted, "No! Stop! Ikuto!" She cried out as an invisible force pushed her back to the ground. She de-transformed from Amulet Heart, revealing her pajamas underneath. Ran did not reappear.

Kazuomi laughed maniacally.

The violin turned back into a scythe.

Ikuto cried out in pain.

The mountain began rumbling and crumbling under her feat.

Her friends at the foot of the mountain screamed as the land beneath their feet crumbled away into a deep chasm.

Amu screamed as she woke up in a cold sweat in her bedroom at home, her guardian characters inside their eggs as usual, and her room noticeably Ikuto-free.

He was still out there.

He needed her.