Author's Note: Hey gang. Halenriser here.

I got this done two days after I posted Chapters 51 and 52.

I love how it turned out so I hope you do too.

Chapter 53

The Last Dream

Ayu's funeral was held in the rain. Hailed as a hero, everyone at Dexlabs HQ attended the ceremony. Almost nobody really knew her, so almost nobody cried. The only one who cried was the one who held her in his arms as she died; her childhood friend and lover, Jason.

Billy, Mark, and Serah did their bests to cheer Jason up, but nothing they did seemed to work. He told them what had happened and by the time he was finished with his tale, he was already starting to break down again. They figured the best thing for him to do would be to sleep.

And so he slept. He slept, and slept, and slept some more. He barricaded himself in his own room, saying he just needed time to sort things out on his own.

He emerged on the day of the funeral, which his friends had arranged for Ayu, and once it was over, he returned to his room. That night though, instead of reliving the same nightmare of him holding Ayu's body as she died, he had a dream he thought he would never experience ever again.

"Where… am I? Why does this feel so… familiar? Am I dead?"

""Am I dead?" Is that really what your mind jumps to in this situation?"

"I must be dead. I'm hearing Ayu's voice. I feel light as a feather, I'm not feeling any sort of ground below me, and I'm hearing the voice of a dead girl. Yep, gotta be dead."

"I'm telling you, you're not dead. Open your eyes."

"Maybe if I stay like this, I'll just fade away…"

Suddenly, Jason felt something smack him across the face. His initial reaction was to open his eyes to see what did it, and the first thing he noticed was that everything around him was white; there was no sky or walls, no furniture or trees. There was nothing but whiteness, as if he were in some sort of new and empty dimension.

"What is this place?" Jason said quietly.

"A dream. One I managed to make for you."

Jason sat up as he heard this. "Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm right behind you."

Jason slowly turned around and found himself to be greeted by a familiar smiling face that belonged to an equally beautiful girl. She wore the same white dress and matching flip-flops she wore the first time they met in his dreams and her long brown hair went right down to the center of her back. Her beautiful brown eyes still sparkled with life, which was the opposite of how they had been a few days ago. It took him a minute, but once he got to his feet, Jason managed to speak her name.

"Ayu…"

"Morning, sleepyhead." said Ayu in a teasing tone. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm afraid that this will be the last time we can meet like this. After tonight I'll be-"

Before Ayu knew it, she was suddenly cut off by a pair of lips crashing against hers and a pair of arms wrapping around her, surprising her and, if not for being held by the arms, she probably would have toppled over. Jason had run up to her and had brought her into a kiss, one which made her heart flutter. She stood still with her eyes open wide, however after a few seconds she began to close her eyes as she relaxed into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Jason's neck for even more support.

Neither moved from that position, wrapped in each-other's arms and doing the thing they've been wanting to do for a long time. After a minute or two though, Jason pulled his face back slowly, keeping his eyes focused on Ayu's.

"Ayu Yume, I love you. I… I remember everything now. I remember the years we spent together, the friendship we formed, our smiles and tears… and how I fell in love with you." He tightened his grip on Ayu gently. "I haven't told the others yet, mainly because I wasn't sure how to tell them."

"Th-That's great!… You know, ever since I woke up, I've been unable to enter your dreams."

"Wait, if you haven't been able to get in, how come you're here now?"

Ayu sighed and looked away. "Before I died, I used what was left of my ability to put some of my consciousness inside you temporarily. It was meant to be triggered by a memorial service for the people who died in the fight, and after this dream my power will be gone… and when that happens I'll…" Ayu began to trail off as she bit her bottom lip.

"Fade away." Jason felt his heart tighten at the thought of losing her again. "Ayu, I'm-"

"It's not your fault. My death… It's not your fault."

"But-"

"No, don't even start. You are NOT at fault. I can tell you've been blaming yourself, and I want you to stop." She looked at Jason with a serious expression and in turn Jason looked away from here. "Don't you look away from me!" She grabbed his face with both of her hands and forced him to look at her.

"You. Are not. At fault! Every battle has its casualties. Sometimes they're your enemies, sometimes they're your friends. There will always be casualties of war. You can't control that, so don't you dare think you could have controlled my death!" Tears were in Ayu's eyes now but she kept up her serious expression. "I won't let you get dragged down by guilt. I love you too much to let that happen to you. Those people out there, those people who look up to you, they need you. They need something to look up to, something to give them hope.

"They need you more than I need you now." Her voice cracked as she said that, but she didn't stop. "Jason Halenriser, I love you more than anything else, but don't you dare let my death hold you down. Use my death to get stronger."

"But how?" Jason finally asked.

"By not giving up! By continuing the fight! Don't let one friend's death be the end-all moment in this war. Fight to the bitter end! Do what you need to do!"

"And what do I need to do?"

"Kill Fuse. Get to Planet Fusion, find him, and kill him. Save the world."

Silence then hung in the air after she spoke those words. It took a few minutes for Jason to process what she had just said, and once he finally found his voice again, the first thing he said was:

"God I love you. A beautiful face and a brain full of crazy ideas that any normal person would deem "impossible."" A small smile slowly began to form on his face as he said that.

"Well you're not what most people would deem to be "normal", now are you?" She said with a smile just as small as his.

"You're right about that."

The two of them began to laugh whole-heartedly, the tears no longer in Ayu's eyes and the tight grip no longer on Jason's heart.

Once they began to calm down though, Ayu grabbed Jason by his shirt and kissed him deeply, closing her eyes as she did so. Jason did the same, holding her against him body as the two of them began to get lost in the moment. This was their last chance to do this was the last chance to do this. They could either take it a step further or stick with the kiss. In the end, they decided to stick with the kiss.

They each smiled into the kiss as they let out contempt sighs. For all they could have cared, this was heaven. Being wrapped in eachother's embrace and kissing each other like a truly happy couple. It was a truly dream that Ayu had conjured up for them to be in.

But just like every other dream, even this one had to end at some point. Jason felt his arms suddenly slip right through Ayu, as if she wasn't even there. Opening his eyes to see what was happening, he was shocked to see Ayu was becoming transparent slowly. She pulled away from him with a big grin on her face and her arms behind her back.

"Well, this is where we say goodbye. Your dream's almost over."

"And once it ends, I'll never see you again?" Jason asked with a frown.

Ayu put her finger to her chin and leaned forward. "Now who said anything about us never meeting again?"

"But you said-"

"I said we couldn't meet like this anymore. Who's to say there's no afterlife and we'll meet each other there? Something like Heaven, only it's just for the Subjects."

"… You may be right. We don't know what'll happen to us when we die. For all we know, we could be reborn."

"That's the spirit! This isn't goodbye!"

"It's just "see you later"." Tears of joy were in Jason's eyes now but he still smiled.

Ayu nodded her head and closed her eyes. "Mhm… I love you, Jason."

Jason walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, or at least where she would be if she were solid. "I love you too, Ayu." He said closing his eyes.

"Promise you'll finish this war?"

"I promise, Ayu."

"Eheheh. Good boy." And with that, Ayu faded away completely, leaving Jason alone in a white world that began to turn black.

Three Hours Later

Jason stood alone in front of Ayu's grave, the rain still coming down on him, but not as hard as it had been the day before. He decided to pay her grave a visit before he did anything else.

"Oh. You're out of your room?"

Jason turned around to see Billy, Mark, and Serah all walking up to him, making him smile. "Yeah. I'm out."

"And how do you feel?" asked Billy.

"I feel better. A lot better." He took a deep breath and the rain slowed to a halt. "My mind's a lot clearer now too."

"Then do you have any ideas on what we should do next?" asked Mark. "Cuz we're not sure what to do."

Jason looked up at the sky as the clouds began to part and sunlight shined down on them through the clouds. "We're going to kill Fuse."

Serah coughed in surprise, spitting out some food she was eating. "I'm sorry, but what did you just say?"

Jason laughed at Serah's predicament and walked over to the three of them. "I'll explain as we go inside. Come on. Let's go take a look at those files that we were supposed to look at a few days ago."

And there you have it. Chapter 53.

R&R

This was another planned chapter, only this one was not pre-written like Chapter 52.

Wanted to make their last moments special, and I think I did.

Welp, got no time left to talk. Gotta go. Bye