Whisper: A Deidara Love Story

♣️ Chapter XXXII: An Unbreakable Bond

It was hard for Tobi to realize that though she wore the same face as Aoi, she was not Aoi. Even though he had seen that face cry and laugh and scream, even though his memories were filled with that face's moments, it was not the same person. The simple thought terrified him, knowing that although the only thing he wished to do was make that face smile, he couldn't.

And the thought that he would eventually have to hurt that person in order to protect the ones he loved horrified him, even if they had the same face as those whom he protected.

Hurting Emiko would be, to him, the exact same as hurting Aoi—and he couldn't bring himself to do that.

Tobi's attention was caught when Emiko began to cackle, a tawny light erupting from around her feet and blowing up towards the sky, lighting it up like a flame. She cackled even louder as she stomped her foot, the earth trembling beneath her feet.

"Power!" she roared, staring at her trembling hands gloriously. "I can feel it surging through my veins, crushing my heart, eating me alive!" But her laughing was cut short when Tobi tackled her, rolling with her until she landed on her stomach. He subdued her by pulling one of her arms around her back, his knee on her lower back. The woman growled and tossed him off of her and into a nearby fallen tree, catching him by surprise.

Her strength had greatly risen.

The rain began to pour as the clouds clustered again.

"Tobi!" a voice screamed. He whipped around and spotted three figures nearing him. It was Deidara—and behind him, Itachi and Kisame. There was an expression of surprise upon his face, undoubtedly because of the new terrain. "Itachi, Kisame! Take her down!" The two didn't need another word as they worked together seamlessly to trick the woman into falling into Itachi's Mangekyo.

By the end of their task, the two were panting and had broken sweat; Itachi clutched an eye, huffing, "She's powerful. I won't be able to hold her for long."

"That's fine," Deidara exclaimed, his eyes desperately searching for one thing: Aoi. And Aoi, he did find—unmoving, still. She lay among the broken terrain. He rushed over to her body and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. "Aoi! Wake up! If your sister is awake, you should be too, yeah!"

But Aoi remained motionless, her serene face turning paler by the moment. Deidara searched for a pulse, pressing two fingers against her neck... but felt nothing. His face drained of color and his blood ran cold; he snatched her wrist and felt for a steady beat, but there was no movement beneath her paper-like skin. Finally, Deidara laid his head against Aoi's chest, feeling for the rising and falling movement, straining his ears for the calming sound of her heart... with unfathomable despair.

"Aoi," Deidara breathed, his eyes quickly pooling with salty tears. He tightly clutched her head to his chest and let the tears fall, soaking the top of her hair. There was nothing but tightness in his chest, a gaping hole in his stomach and a hollowness in his heart as he slowly rocked back and forth. "What happened while I was gone?! Aoi, Aoi! Aoi! My love, come back to me! Not again, not again... this can't be happening..."

His sobs weren't held back and echoed through the flattened earth around them. Itachi, Kisame, and Tobi held their heads low, unable to comprehend that this woman was no longer alive. Their silence was broken by a snide voice.

"Did you really think you could hold me back for that long?" Emiko chuckled. All heads turned to her. She shook her head with a pitiful laugh, one hand holding her head. Itachi grunted in pain and fell to a knee, clutching the eye that streamed blood. "It's pitiful to think that you all thought something as petty as your Mangekyo could stop me. True, it took me longer than I thought to break out of it, but it wasn't too bad." When she lowered her hand to reveal her right eye—now a Mangekyo Sharingan.

"What've you done to her?!" Deidara bellowed, his face of anguish morphing into one of rage. "What have you done to Aoi?! Why isn't she breathing? Why is she waking up?!"

"Oh, quit your babbling, child." Emiko grinned devilishly, her eyelids drooping as that cold stare turned dark. "Can't you already tell, you fool? She's dead. Her name's Etsuko, by the away, not something pifitul like Aoi. Etsuko's dead. Dead, dead, dead. You hear that? She's dead~!"

"YOU KILLED HER!" Deidara's rage flared, tears pouring forth from those oceanic gems. "You... you killed Aoi!"

"Well, come on—we had a fair battle, though you couldn't see it." She tapped her forehead, scoffing. "A battle between our souls. It's a connection between twins, you see—two that used to be one. And now, we are one. We're all animals, and you know what animal children do? Even in the mother's womb, they battle and eat each other in the belly until only one is left standing. That one is the strongest. That is the one who survives. In this battle, I just happened to be the strongest—and because Etsuko was weak in mind, body, and spirit, she lost. Tough luck, isn't it? But that's life. It's a matter of survival of the fittest." Emiko shrugged and licked her bottom lip in amusement.

"Do you get it now?" she sighed, rolling her eyes. She tapped on her forehead again, an eyebrow raised. "You fools, fools that lay far, far below me. Aoi's been absorbed into my own mind and soul. The powers that were once hers are mine, now—yes, I am the rightful owner. At birth we were split into two, and with us, our powers were also split. Now, we've become one, the proper form. There were never supposed to be twins. She was never supposed to be."

"You're wrong," Deidara sniffed, clutching Aoi tighter against him. "Aoi was born for a reason, un. I'm not going to listen to bullshit some psycho bitch is telling me!"

"Oh, really?" Emiko crossed her arms and jutted her chin in his direction. "Why don't you take another look at your darling?"

Deidara blinked in confusion then glanced down to his lover. Horror dawned upon his face when he realized her form was becoming less opaque, the color fading from her image—floating up to the skies in small golden lights.

"Aoi!" Deidara screamed, holding her closer and closer. His heart shattered with every breath he took. "Aoi, no! Come back! Come back! You promised to never leave my side! Aoi! AOI!"

But all Aoi did was slowly fade, her eyes still closed, the small orbs of light floating away.

Eventually, her entire body faded, leaving only a small cloud of lights to gently glide to the clouds.

"No! NO!" Deidara cried hysterically, swiping at the lights as he tried to hold them back. "Aoi, come back! Please come back! PLEASE!" But the lights slipped between his fingers and continued on their journey to the sky, leaving Deidara empty-handed.

He crumpled to his knees, his hands trembling, and he screamed.

"AOIII!"