A/N: This is an idea I had while listening to some music on my iPod. The album I was listening to was In the Halls of Awaiting by Insomnium (feel free to listen to them if you want to get in the same mindset as I was, but they are a metal band), hence the fic title. In essence, this is collection of short one-shots. Note that this won't be related to any other stories I write. Now, enjoy.

Aigis dreamed.

Every night, it was the same dream. She would be there, curled up limply on the floor, surrounded by perpetual darkness. Every night, he would appear, a ray of light to pierce the dark, and she would call out to him, but he would never hear. Every night, he would slowly walk away, and she would run after him, calling his name and begging him to stop, but he would never stop, and she would never catch him. And every night, she would collapse, and from the floor she would plead for him to stay, but each time he would disappear, lost once again to the darkness.

She had promised to protect him, to watch over him, to be the wind in his sails, and to always be by his side. By sealing Death inside him, she had prevented any chance of him ever having a normal life. She owed him that much.

But now, how could she do that, when he was buried under six feet of silent clay?

The days offered no relief. Anywhere she went bore bitter memories of him. The school where they'd shared so many days of laughter and companionship, the tower where they'd fought back to back with tooth and nail, the streets where he'd slowly taught her what it meant to live, the room where she'd bared everything for him… they all rung in her mind.

Every one of those memories brought up old scars and fresh pain. Past joys only served as a reminder of her greatest failure.

Today, she was standing on a pier. Eight months. Eight months ago, the two of them had met on a pier. That had been her first memory of happiness.

Today, though, all she felt was misery. The pier, the sand, the cerulean blue waves, all served as a mockery of that memory. Even the wind seemed to whisper his name.

She stared at the waters below her. The waves lapped gently at the shore, like they had been before. It felt appropriate. Before they'd met, she'd been just another machine, flat and dehumanised. Now he was gone again, those feelings returned.

Day by day, slowly, but surely, like a torn and pallid shade, she was withering away.

She wanted nothing more than to forget and move on. But how could a machine forget?

How could a machine live?

Did her life have a meaning?

She continued staring at the waters below. Wearied of the world, burdened with sorrows and pains nigh-on unbearable… what would happen if she just let herself fall here?

No-one was there. She would fall and sink, and the sun would set and the moon would light the silent waves before anyone would realise she was missing. But then they would try to find her, and inevitably they would reach her at the bottom of those dark waters and fish her out and repair her, and nothing would change.

Nothing would change.

She would still have failed, he would still be dead, and every single thing she did would still tear her heart and soul to shreds.

Somehow, a tear fell down her cheek.

To no-one in particular, perhaps hoping that someone, anyone, would hear her, she spoke. "I'm… sorry… maybe one day, we could be together again.

"But… I can't… please… I need… let me leave this pain behind. Let me put away these sorrows, and depart from these cares."

More tears fell down her cheeks.

"If anyone can hear me, I wish… I could return to being a mere machine."