A/N : Final chapter.

Alvise lunged at Aria with his sword, but Aria pulled out hers just in time to block the attack. The sound of those metals collide created a buzzing sound to the ears of those who could hear them, damaging eardrums thanks to the power of their auras. Aria broke away to create distance by pulling away from Alvise, but the latter continued chasing her fiercely.

"Arararara~ Aria-chan~" Rogue watched the two with a smirk on his face. "Are you running away from your beloved Alvise-kun? That's not nice, you know~" Aria's face remained impassive. "You haven't seen him for years." Rogue was still getting ignored. Until he said something he shouldn't. "Since that day you killed him." And his smirk grew wider.

That was it.

Like a landmine being stepped on, Aria made a detour from her original escape plan. She kicked back the wall that was behind her, creating enough momentum to send her flying towards Rogue and pointed her sword at him, ready to end the bastard's life in one go.

But Alvise took the hit instead.

Rogue peeked from behind Alvise and mocked her. "You're mean, Aria-chan~ To kill him for the second time?" Aria's stabbed him deeper, hopefully enough to penetrate Alvise's body to get to the real target. "Luckily, I reinforce his body. He's made of steel, ya know~"

Alvise strengthen his Artes. A resounding wave came out of him, breaking Aria's sword and pushed her backwards and rolling on the cracked floor. She groaned in pain.

"I bet that broke your ribs." Rogue was standing beside her now. "Poor my Aria-chan." And he kicked her right in the stomach. Aria felt like her stomach content was about to leak from every opening of her body – mouth, ass, ears – you named it.

Rogue squatted down beside her. Thinking that she had chance wi

th them being this close, Aria fired a string of cards at Rogue, but he was one step ahead of her. A shield appeared between them, blocking the attack and reflected them back at her.

Aria's injury just piling up with every minute.

"Alvise..." Aria called for him. "Why..." She felt weak. It had been years since she felt like this. Specifically, since Alvise died.

Rogue was right. She killed him. She cried for days. She thought she was about to die from starvation and dehydration. Yet she lived. And she lived with her sin since that day.

"You're about to die, huh, Aria?" Rogue dropped the -chan title he used to mock Aria. His expression was numb. Bored. Disappointment. No more smirk. No more smile. No more laugh.

Rogue got up. He began kicking Aria more. "This is boring!" And hard. "You shouldn't be this weak!" And harder. "I didn't make you to be this weak!" He pulled the weak Aria up by grasping her hair, making her screamed in agony. "How can I make you stronger? Stronger than the time when Alvise died?"

Aria coughed up blood. She really felt tired. She's done living with knowing she killed Alvise. She killed the person that mattered most to her.

How can she forgive herself by living happily and forgetting about him?

"All my efforts, and plans are ruined because you're so weak!" He threw her into the air and watched as her body creating a loud thudding sound when it hit the floor. "I didn't bring Alvise back for this kind of show." He began pacing back and forth while biting on his thumb. "Oh well, I'll just kill him again. And this time, I'll make sure there wouldn't be any trace left. Unlike that time."

"What...do...you...m-mean?" The pain in her guts was overwhelming that she found it hard to even talk. "Kill...him...again?"

Rogue was surprised. "Oh, you're still alive? How stubborn." He didn't even put up a fighting stand. "Just stay like that and die like a good kid, okay?"

"Rogueee!" Aria summoned a thunderbolt of what seemed like her last mean of putting up a resistance and meant serious business.

The evil man finally paid attention to her. "You wanted to know? Fine. You're going to die anyways." And he began his storytelling. "Remember that day when the laboratory-cum-slave-bootcamp blowed up?" Aria felt swallowed by her emotions just remembering those.

"And you kids cutely thinking 'this was your chance to run and free yourself' but instead, an army of men waiting outside with their big guns and began annihilating every single one of you?" Her tears began swelling in her eyes as she vividly recalled the memories.

"That was all me." Rogue admitted his well-calculated plan. "You see, the experiments to make you the next generation of humans are expensive. So, naturally, the sponsors wanted to see results. But the best you kids could do was...what was it again?" Rogue snapped his finger when he remembered it. "Yeah. Nothing!" He began losing his mind.

"All the times, the efforts, the money, the labour – yet you give me nothing! So I decided to get rid of you!" Rogue maniacally screamed his lungs out and venting his frustrations. "But~ soemthing good happened in the middle of it."

"Alvise...awakened his power."

"Yep yep!" Rogue nodded his head in affirmative. "Turns out, his feelings to protect you was strong so it created a barrier to protect you both." Aria was getting confused. "You must be thinking why would I kill him if he got power, right?"

It was a spot-on guess.

"Because it's a boring power." He flailed his arms in disappointment. "Haven't you heard offense is the best defense? And if you two survived and my experiment got discovered, I'll be in trouble with the good guys~ So, there isn't much choice but to kill him, then you."

The bastard! Aria's tears were flowing non-stop.

"Yet, there's another plot twist. Watching Alvise's death stirred you up. Before I could kill you, You created an explosive shockwave and the ground blazed to nothing. It even knocked me out!" Rogue clapped his hands. "So, when I finally came to, you were gone. But his body remained there. And I got this perfect idea in my head."

"Don't...tell...me..."

"I'm such a genius! I've modified his memories, took out his heart and amplify his power. He's my perfect creation. Ah, but he's nothing compared to you, Aria-chan~" Rogue snickered at enraged Aria. "After all, I nurtured you ever since you're in your mother's womb."

"You-..." Aria shakily tried to get up. She bit her lip just so that she could hang onto what's left of her consciousness due to blood loss. "How could you...?!"

"Eh?~ Because I can~"

Just listening to his answer made Aria shaking furiously in rage. She pulled out another sword from the air and charged at Rogue, but again, Alvise stood in the way.

"You're cute, Aria-chan. But you should know by now, you need to kill him first in order to get to me. And in case you're forgetting, that sword of yours not going to be able to break his body."

Crack!

The sound of metal cracking shocked Rogue. "What?!"

"This is not a normal sword. It's an Artes sword."

Rogue's eyes widen. "You're lying! Artes sword can only be made using.."

"50% of artes and 50% of its master's life force. If while fusing the two the ingredients were unbalanced, it will kill you instantly."

"You'd kill him?!"

Aria thrusted the sword deeper into Alvise's core. Under the layer of metal, the original flesh of Alvise started decaying and rotting. "You fused Artes inside his core. When my sword sucked the Artes, Alvise's foundation crumbled."

Rogue backed awar from broken Alvise slowly, witnessing Aria's determination to put an end to his scheme with disbelief reflected in his eyes.

"Aria..."

Aria stopped thrusting. Her body was frozen. "Alvise...?" In another dimension, their souls met once more.

"I'm sorry..."

"For what?"

"Not only I break my promise to always be with you, I also hurt you. I'm sorry I can't protect you any longer."

"Alvise..." Her tears uncontrollably flowing from her eyes.

Alvise smiled gently. He wiped her tears. "It's okay. You don't have to live with guilt anymore. I want you to be happy, Aria."

"How can I when we lived in hellhole? And when we got out, you were killed?! There's nothing happy happened to you!"

"But there is." Alvise pulled her closer to his chest. "When I see you smiled, I thought you were an angel." He kissed her forehead before going for the lips. "I love you."

"ALVISE!"

Aria returned to the real world. Alvise was gone. Rogue was dumbfounded. Before he could say another word, Aria threw her sword, piercing Rogue's skull and crushed it with blood splattering everywhere.

"Urgh!" Aria's chest felt hurt. Particularly her heart. She passed out, unable to take the pressure from both the injury and emotional pain anymore.

A year later

It was spring. The sakura blossomed beautifully. When the wind blew, the petals scattered, creating the most romantic scene ever.

"It's been a year huh?" Tsuna hold Aria's hand. After the battle ended, they found Aria lying unconsciously and her pulse was weak. They did everything they could to cure her, but she was in comatose state not long after.

"To think the whole damn building was made of Artes..." Squalo began to feel headache.

"Her sword sucked too much Artes, and in result, sucked her life force to balance it."

"I'm surprised she's still alive." Fran poked Aria. "How long do you think she'll live without this whole mess, anyways?"

"I can't help but thinking Alvise protected her in the end."

"What do you mean, Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked.

"It means, his will to protect Aria was strong that it transverse time and dimension."

Prang!

The sound alone got the Varia riled up. "That trashy boss!" Squalo gritted his teeth. "He was fucking God-knows-where when this shit happened and came back like nothing happened."

"Let's kill the boss, shall we?" Fran threw the idea into the ring.

"Shut your froggy mouth, frog."

"Shut up, herbivores. You're annoying!" A couple of handcuffes flew at them.

"Hibari-kun?" Tsuna was shocked to see Hibari carried Aria bridal style and jumped out of the window, disappearing with the petals erasing his trace.

"He's just do whatever he wants!" Gokudera sighed. He might join Squalo for an aspirin or two.

Tsuna smiled. "He IS Hibari-kun, you know?"

"Hey Aria..." The young Alvise called her.

"Alvise..."

"If you're not up now, you'll miss the sakura."

"What sakura? You can't see it from this lab." Young Aria pouted.

"But you're not in the lab anymore. Open your eyes."

Slowly, she opened her eyes. The outside light made her shut her eyes, before opening them half-lid in order to adjust to the brightness.

The pink colour was everywhere. "You can really see sakura..."

"Of course you can, herbivore." Hibari's voice reached her ears.

"Hibari?" Aria was still in dizzy state. "Why are you here?"

Ignoring her question, Hibari cupped her chin and made her looked at him. "It's about time you woke up, herbivore."

"But I'm still sleepy." She began closing her eyes and shifted confortably to fit in Hibari's arms.

"This is not Sleeping Beauty, you damn herbivore."

"So you're not my prince?"

Hibari couldn't guess if she's talking in her sleep and being sarcasting or she's talking in her sleep and being sincere.

Either way...

"Beauty and the Beast is more likely."

"Except you're my tall, dark and handsome Beast."

A/N : Hey guys. It's been a year since last update. I just realized that. And it's suddenly final chapter too! I'm sorry about the update.

I thank you all for your support. For your reviews. For your PMs. Those are what made me continue writing. Thank you.

Tbh, I wanted to make omake or epilogue. Something like HibariAria getting married or whatever. But then, Hibari is not the kind of man who needs marriage to mark what's his.

He'd just go 'bite you to death' (in a lot of ways). Ahue.

So, if you still want omakes/epilogues etc, drop a suggestion for the plot. Or settings. Or characters inter-framed.

Xellopon, Guest - Sorry about the grammar. Thanks for reminding me somebody STILL read the series.

ghostsmile96 - Thanks for your constant review. Made my day.

Oh. I don't mind accepting one-shots for KHR too. So yeah~ Have a nice day guys!

/bowed