It seems all too easy for him.

"Join us," he keeps saying - pleading, really. He gets that look in his eyes… Just like a little dog. Just like a seven year old child.

But he doesn't really know what he wants. He doesn't understand yet. He looks at me, and he invites me. He thinks we can be friends. It pisses me off.

I see what Luke does not. I see the hidden shadow behind all of their eyes. I see it in Guy's eyes the most. He's wary of me. He's worried I'm somehow going to upset or hurt Luke. I see it in Tear's eyes. I even see it in Jade's eyes. And just when I thought Jade couldn't care for anyone besides himself. He cares about Luke. They all do.

And I'm just an intruder. To think, me, the original… the intruder. Luke isn't a reject. He isn't defective. He fulfilled his goal perfectly. He really did replace me… clean and simple.

And so where does that leave me now? I have no place here on this world. My shoes have already been filled by someone else. By someone younger than me, with less experience, less knowledge. Everything I worked for, everything I trained for, it all amounted to nothing. My studies, my battle skills…in the end they can just be replaced. Everything can be learned over again. By Luke. Not by me. Not by me ever again.

It makes me so angry seeing his stupid innocent little face. It shines with the happiness that was supposed to be mine. It was always supposed to be mine. But now it's his. Even Natalia… She was… supposed to be only mine….

I refuse to share. It may seem like the obvious choice to join them - power in numbers and all that - but I can't. It sounds so simple. Just JOIN them. Deal with the sadness, and the pain and the hurt. You're being selfish, you're being stupid. Just get over it already. But I can't… His happiness…it just radiates off of him. I don't know how to take it. Should I be happy for him? Happy that he took what was mine? Should I pity him? Should I hate him? Should I even think of himself as someone separate from me? He is me! Can't anyone else see that?

But Guy turns his head from me and stares directly at Luke. Luke is his best friend. But I am Luke, too…or rather, I was. But I was the Luke that Guy planned and wanted to kill. And Luke is the Luke that Guy couldn't bring himself to kill…

And here we are now. Asch and Luke. Luke and Asch. Completely separate beings, even if he hasn't figured that out yet… even if I haven't fully figured it out yet…

And he invites me to join them. But I have to turn my back to him, instead. That was my life. That was my path. But he has already filled those shoes. And now I have to walk an empty path…erased from this world.

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