trodain | [Complete] His Reason

Title: His Reason
Characters: Minato Arisato
Pairings: -
Type: Guess
Summary: The battle for everyone's lives is won at last, but at a great cost.
Word count:
Notes: This was written well before we knew how the event was going to go. Trust me, this was better in the sense that less people died horribly.

They had won in spite of the odds against them.

The members of what had been unofficially dubbed Group Two cheered and laughed amongst themselves as they made their way back to Haven West in spite of the injuries most of the group had suffered. Even the anger at having been betrayed by people they had thought were allies was set aside for now as they were simply happy to have a new lease on life- one that they would be sharing with their kidnapped friends, who they eagerly looked forward to seeing again after helping them to break free from the hospital.

Much as he tried to muster that same joy though, Minato kept finding his thoughts shifting to more immediate sensations as he straggled far behind the rest. Pain was chief among them; his entire body hurt with each step he took and he was forced to keep stopping so that he could catch his breath. That was even worse, as breathing deeply made him feel like he was getting stabbed and he could hear himself gasping even with his frequent breaks throughout the journey back.

He couldn't even remember what he had done to feel this poorly. Was it that attack? But...I don't remember feeling like this when I woke up. As Minato continued to push himself to walk forward while leaning on the wall for support, he dimly recalled where he might have gotten such an injury. There had been an ambush led by traitors working for the Yao Corporation who had intended to take out as many of his group members as possible, and he had been the only one close enough to warn everyone else before something had hit him and knocked him out for a few hours. He remembered waking up feeling drowsy and disoriented, and it had shocked him to see how much he had bled despite the group's best efforts to stop it while he had been unconscious.

Then there were no more thoughts as he was too far behind to do anything but make himself move to catch up with his friends. They did not return even when his pain gradually subsided and got replaced by numbness, not when he collapsed onto the ground, and not even when he heard someone screaming his name.

When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he felt was a wetness that wasn't there before- he thought faintly that he would have noticed both the growing feeling of sticky wetness around his heart and the dripping wetness falling upon his face now because no one lived for long if they were oblivious to such things. And even he was close to drifting into unconsciousness again, Minato knew of only one person who could be weeping over his body now and he would have teased her for it if he had the strength to do so.

"Just hang on, Minato...we'll be out soon, and then you can rest all you want. Just- please don't go, not when it's finally all over. You made a promise, remember? Even if you're not the life of the party, we still can't hold one without you too."

Rest...that single word brought back so many memories, from the days when he had been practically ushered to bed to the day that he had fallen asleep for what he was sure would have been the final time. And now it seemed that he would be doing so again, only that he wasn't just falling asleep.

With the reassurance that everything was over Minato could finally rest again, and it was merciful to him, letting him pass away so quickly that he would never hear Minako screaming, nor would he be alive to see how the news of his death would hurt the people he cared for.

In the end, his reason for doing what he did never changed and it would never change, no matter what happened.