*This chapter is base on this lore ↑
This chapter is Azure's view from Chapter 3 and 4. 





AZURE'S VIEW:

The night embraced him like an old friend—silent, cold, unyielding.

Azure sat alone beneath the collapsed edge of a crumbling wall, half-hidden from the flickering fires in the distance. The battle was over. For now.

His arm throbbed with dull, hot pain, blood oozing from the gunshot wound just above his elbow. He'd wrapped it in torn cloth, but the bleeding hadn't quite stopped. He didn't care.

Not when his chest ached more than any flesh wound could.

His eyes stared ahead, unfocused. But inside his mind, the memory played again—merciless and clear.

He remembered the moment.

The moment he saw them.

Two Time.

The name echoed in his skull like a bell tolling in a ruined chapel.

Their voice—fragile, unsteady—had reached him like a hymn through the fog. He remembered how their smile, cracked and trembling, had still been unmistakably theirs.

His breath had caught.

"God, I missed you..."

It wasn't something he could admit—not then, not out loud. Not even to himself.

But now, sitting here, shaking and bloody, he let the truth surface.

"I missed you so much I forgot how to breathe without you."

He had come back from death with only one name in his heart. Only one reason to return. And when he saw them—standing there, so close—his first instinct had been to run to them.

To fall into their arms. To tell them everything.

To say, "I'm here. You were right. I'll never stopped loving you."

But he hadn't.

Because of the Spectre.

The cursed thing that lived atop his head like a crown of rot.

It had seized him the moment their eyes met. Its grip tightened like cold iron. And then—

Azure's jaw clenched as he remembered.

He hadn't spoken.

The Spectre had.


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(The fight ⬇️)

"You look pathetic," it had said with his voice, sharp and cruel. "Still trembling like a kicked dog. Still clinging to things long dead."

He'd wanted to scream.

"That's not me! That's not what I meant!"

But he'd watched helplessly as his own lips twisted into a sneer. As Two Time's face fell.

"Don't you have anything to say, Two Time?" the Spectre mocked through him. "Or are you waiting for forgiveness that will never come?"

The way their shoulders tensed. The hurt that flickered across their face.

Azure saw it all. From inside himself. Trapped behind a wall of flesh and bone.

"I wanted to reach out," he thought bitterly, staring at his shaking hands. "I wanted to hold them. To say their name."

But the Spectre had whispered louder.

"They left you."
"They moved on."
"But you came back stronger."
"Let me speak—and they'll never hurt you again."

The words felt like knives, but he had been helpless to stop them.

And the Spectre had smiled.

"What's the matter?" it had hissed. "Surprised to see me? You should be grateful. I clawed my way back for you."

"No," Azure had thought then—and again now—not for them. "I came back for them. Not to hurt them."

And yet the Spectre had worn his voice like a weapon. Had made him say things he could never imagine saying:

"Are you scared?"
"You should be."
"I remember everything."

His fingers twitched.

Just barely.

Azure had twitched. His body stuttered—briefly—against the Spectre's control.

He wanted to reach out. To grab their hand. To say their name the way he used to—soft, reverent, full of love.

But the Spectre had buried him deep.

He was a prisoner in his own flesh.

"I missed you," he cried out in his mind, "Please. Hear me. Not the voice. Not the Spectre. Me."

But the Spectre only smiled wider.

"Still resisting?" it had taunted, amused.

Azure bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood.

He didn't want to be made of this.

He didn't want to be anyone's monster.

He just wanted to be held.

Azure stood slowly. His shadow stretched long and jagged behind him.

Even now, remembering it, Azure gritted his teeth. His whole body trembled with the shame of it.

He looked down at his bloodied palms, fingers curled tight.

"I came back for them, he thought. And now I don't even know if they'll recognize what's left of me."

The memory burned.

But beneath it—beneath all of it—something still glowed.

Love.

Even if he hadn't been allowed to say it.

Even if he hadn't been able to act on it.

Even now.

He pressed his palm over his chest, just above the ache.

"I missed you," he whispered in his mind. "I never stopped."

The wind stirred the dust around him.

And the Spectre fell silent. It didn't need to say anything more. It had won—for now.








Author's note: Im switching to Azure's POV bc i have NO idea left. Sorry yall 😭

Daily reminder: If this chap is too confusing or boring, please leave a comment below so i can write better for y'all! 🥰❤️