Blind in a sea of darkness and bound to a chair Noella heard people shouting, calling out for her head to roll. Their voices grew louder, calling her a murderer, a - monster. The enraged, blood thirsty mob shouted more names, many far worse than being called a mere monster or murder. Noella didn't dare repeat them inside her head for they would slowly dissolve into her being, morphing her into the very thing they falsely accused her of being.

A traitor.

The doorknob jiggled the first sign of human life in a month since her imprisonment.

A person, encased in blinding light, walked into the lifeless empty room she had now come to call home. Swiftly Noella closed her shallow shrunken brown eyes for fear the light would hurt her after being confined to a dark room for god knows how long.

The light lasted for only a fraction of a second, fading to darkness when the door clicked shut, encasing the room in darkness once again.

She opened her eyes, and instead of seeing only darkness, a blurry figure stood before her as if it were nothing more than a statue. Perhaps, if things had gone differently, said statue would have probably swooped in and ended her life here and now, without pity or remorse.

Bitterly, Noella wished for such a thing.

But wishes wouldn't save them from what they must do. Nothing could. Not even the gods themselves could stop the madness dwelling just under the surface, under her skin and inside her skull.

"Yen'fay…" She called out to the figure, voice ragged and raw as if she spent hours screaming her lungs out. Noella scarcely recognized her own battered and broken voice bouncing back into her ears.

How long had it been since she cried? How long ago was it since she sobbed until the tears just, dried up? How long ago was it when she was with, him, happily snuggling under a layer of feather stuffed blankets, sleeping peacefully together like a husband and wife should early in the morning?

The figure remained stationary… and silent. Noella didn't fault him for his silence. After all, today was her public execution. He couldn't stop it, no matter how much he loved her.

A Plegian princess and a Chon'sin king… they were doomed to fail from the start. The recent war was caused by her people; her family. Chon'sin called for her blood, demanding payment for the deaths she had caused under Grima's control… and the lives of innocent people the Plegian army stole without hesitation or mercy.

They wanted retribution, -justice, for the pain so wrongly inflicted upon their souls and mortal flesh.

It was a shame what they wanted, would separate two people from one another. But it had to be done. Yen'fay had a duty to uphold, a duty to his people.

He could not go against his people's wishes.

She would not drag him through the mire, just to save herself. Her life was the price to pay for peace in Chon'sin… and she would gladly give it up without a second thought.

She would be the martyr, the sacrificial goat to appease the screaming mob lingering outside.

Noella hung her head low, her collar chains rattling in the stale air. He had to kill her; duty demanded he do so for his people. She was a traitor and a murderer to his people. The penalty was death. No one, noble or commoner, could weasel their way out of such a sentence once passed.

Noella bit her tongue before breaking the suffocating silence. This was to be their last conversation before the execution; she didn't want it to be spent in silence.

"I don't hate you Yen'fay. It must be done." The dark figure shifted in place.

"Fie! How can you not, Noella?" His voice sounded haggard, as if he had slept very little the past month since her imprisonment, bound to this dull, dreary room without any hope of escape.

Not like she wished to leave.

Noella smiled warmly, "Because I love you." Silence echoed inside the room after she spoke those faithful, but truthful words to her beloved.

Before this mess…. before everything, the war and her father's scheming to take over Chon'sin, she genuinely loved Yen'fay and the time they spent together. Brief as it was, she knew he did too because if he did not, he would not be here with her now.

He loved her and deeply wished not to be the one to kill her.

But he had to because of duty.

Yen'fay slowly approached her, the sound of his boots scuffing the floor echoing loudly within the tiny little room unfit to even house a small child. He knelt down in front of her, dark brown eyes gazing intensely into her's. Unconsciously she noticed faint circles under his eyes. Under the darkness with baggy eyes, his long brilliant white hair now a greyish color, and slouched shoulders, he looked to be at least forty when in reality, he hit thirty just two months ago. Stress had taken its toll upon him just as confinement had aged and worn away at her appearance.

Chon'sin's king reached out to her, resting upon a single ungloved hand on her grimy, dirty cheek. Unbeknownst to everyone in the castle, he caressed the cheek of a traitor, his wife, and mother to his only son, Morgan.

Dark brown eyes flashed in the darkness, briefly displaying grief and untold amounts of pain lingering within his body that he kept bottled up. "I did not wish for this to happen…"

Noella knew his words were true. From day one, he had been so kind to her, so loving and polite during their time together. There was no doubt in her mind he spoke the truth.

"I know Yen'fay." A matted mess of silver hair fell over her face, blocking a portion of Yen'fay figure.

"I can't…" She heard his voice crack as he tried to say something. "…I can't do it, Noella. I can't." He finished, hand now shaking against her face.

"You must, Yen'fay. You have a duty to your people."

"If I had been quicker-"

"What ifs won't stop what is to come." Her voice sounded harsh, the bitter truth becoming razor sharp like a sword as it plunged into her heart -and his.

His hand stopped shaking. "Aye, they will not…" His broken voice had her wishing she could embrace him, to reassure him everything would be alright. But with her hands bound, that wasn't possible. And words without something behind them would do very little to comfort the Chon'sin king.

But Noella continued to smile for the both of them.

"Duty demands that you be the one to kill me, Yen'fay. You are Chon'sin's king, you shouldn't weep for a murderer, a mon-" She opened her mouth to say more but was cut off by Yen'fay, his lips pressing against her's as she tried to continue her sentence.

Her muffled words were lost in the moment as they kissed; a final farewell before her blood drenched Chon'sin's native soil. Urgency grasped them firmly, squeezing their hearts so hard she could practically hear Yen'fay's irregular heartbeat in the heat of moment, drumming inside her skull, thunderous and loud like a raging ocean or river. Air swiftly leapt from deep within their lungs, their lips parting only for a fraction of a second to inhale the precious colorless gas that sustained them even now.

A hand held the back of her head, fingers loosely entangled in a knotted mass of silver strands which had long forgone a proper brushing for quite some time. The hand was large and firm. But it didn't yank or fist her hair; it just… ignored the chains dangling from her the collar around her neck and held her head up should she, for some unspeakable reason, be unable to keep it up. Unable to touch him with her hands, which were securely bound in thick cords of rope the width of her palm and then chained to the chair, she settled for his kisses which he freely gave in this dark, depressing moment. Both he and she took what the other was willing to give, breathless kisses and harmless caresses here and there.

Pretty soon none of this intimacy would matter. The dead can't touch those that live, nor could they speak to them. Noella was to become one with the dead… and very shorty.

When a clock chimed in the far distance, marking sundown, they parted. Two sets of brown eyes reflected the same thing: pain.

With a heavy heart she said, "Duty will separate us… but it will never destroy the love I have for you. I am glad it is you who kills me."

Yen'fay didn't respond and went to untie the knots, which bound her to a poorly made, rickety old chair. A thud echoed just as something collided with the floor, her chains tossed into a poorly made pile behind the chair. She was free from her chair… for a few minutes. Yen'fay walked towards the door, and turned his head towards her direction. With one hand he beckoned for her.

It was time.

Noella didn't hesitate.

With rubbery legs she rose, and walked towards him. She kept her head held high as she marched through the door and towards the light- towards her death.

Yen'fay was duty bound to end her. And Noella was compelled to save Yen'fay from his people. Both of them were thrown into a situation where there was no happy ending. One would live while the other lay beneath a mound of dirt.

There was no silver lining for their story; there was only blood and death.

That was just how it was. That was the fatal flaw of duty… of ruling a nation. You had to do the things that would reduce a commoner to ruin.

Taking a deep breath, listening to the voices growing ever louder, Noella prayed Yen'fay would not collapse in on himself after this. Perhaps their son, Morgan, could heal his father's wounds while she drifted in the realm of souls, forever separated from her husband. Kind-hearted and pure, Morgan always bounced around the castle with piqued curiosity. Frequently their four year old son would follow one of them, silently waddling behind as they tended to their more important duties. Bubbly as a hot-spring, their son smiled and laughed without a care in the world. There were times when Morgan asked to climb onto his father's shoulders, Yen'fay happily obliging his one and only son.

Those were sweet memories; memories where she was still alive and with the two of them. Now… Morgan would grow up without a mother; without someone to lull him to sleep at night with a song or two or perhaps an intricate made up story depicting heroes and monsters. He would have none of that.

All because of duty. Because no one would open their eyes and see she was just a puppet like everyone else her father manipulated.

Granted that didn't excuse her crimes against the people of Chon'sin. She hadn't been willing, being a puppet to Grima without any knowledge that he had full control over her body as she decapitated men and women, children too, as if they sticks of butter.

As she and Yen'fay walked out towards the courtyard, the place where she was to be beheaded, angry commoners and nobles alike spat at her. They called her names, threw things, and cursed the very ground she walked upon.

But she bore them no ill will, not even when she was forced to the ground or when her husband stood before her, his famous sword, Amatsu, drawn and ready to deal a swift, clean cut where her neck met her head.

"Do you have any final words to say?" Yen'fay refrained from saying her name, knowing full well if he were to… he would not be able to swing his sword down upon her neck.

Noella chuckled as she stared at the dark brown colored earth. "I have no regrets," she wanted to say more to him, but knew it wouldn't be right given what he had to do. Already he was teetering on the edge, and to tell him she loved him… it would break his resolve.

So she settled for a neutral response. Something many people said before being killed publically or privately.

She did not fear death, for she was saving two lives with her's

And that was enough.

The swish of the blade slicing through the air was the last thing she heard before everything faded to black.

AN: A bit -dreary- and sad... but I couldn't for the life of me get this scenario out of my head. I don't know why I do this to my Otps... I always tend to write some pretty morbid stuff involving them. Not my fault, it just happens.

Now that finals are done I should be updating Fragmented within the week, perhaps upload a few more one-shots. Who knows.

Hope you enjoyed!