My ears were ringing. I was consumed by a fizzling black, my fingertips tingling. I knew I wasn't far from death.

Oh, how wonderful it had felt when he held me! How absolutely and utterly marvellous! He was worth everything. Every drop of blood.

It had been a game, in the end, a game where we tried to kill ourselves before the other by making a blood sacrifice to spare the other's life. Who would have known it would come to this?  

I was panting, feeling the colour red of the blood I was drooling, its taste almost making me vomit.

I started to come back to myself, having seen the vision as well. Tobirama instinctively moved so he stood between me and the great stone. I, too, had heard what the great stone had said.

We need to give the amethyst back... If Tobirama puts it back, it won't be angry anymore and the sword won't burn me... We can go live in that wheat field...

"Why?" Tobirama asked. I could hear nerves in his voice. Nobody else would've been able to hear it, but I could.

"The prophecy was clear. One of you must die. Never before has any of my planets acted on its own accord to fulfil its own interest, and I cannot accept it. That day on the island in the Scarlet Ocean, the amethyst planet sent a part of itself to warn you about the beginning of war to pull you closer. That was the beginning of bringing its missing piece back. But the prophecy was clear. Tobirama Senju will be killed by Izuna Uchiha unless he is gifted, and accepts the sword. And then, Izuna Uchiha will inevitably burn."

Tobirama had had enough.

"Go fuck yourself", he said, and walked with steady steps towards the amethyst planet, the amethyst from my sword in his hand, the heel of his boots echoing in the cave.

And that was when the true war began.

"DOWN!!" I screamed, my voice still weak.

A gas planet the size of my head had suddenly ignited and came flying down towards Tobirama like a comet on fire. He threw himself to the ground and grunted, but the planet stopped and turned to instantly fly towards him again. It seemed as if the great stone was changing its gravitational pull to steer the burning planet. Tobirama fell backwards, lifted his sword to stop it, but the planet came down on it with such a force, it flew out of his hand, made a bow in the air and landed far, far out in the lake. Shit! The planet swerved again, came with full force towards him.

"HERE!!" I screamed and threw my sword, now without the amethyst, to him, and he caught it. This time, he managed to force some of the magic of the crystals of the South into it, the purple glow encapsulating his arm, and the planet crashed into his sword and exploded into a million pieces. Shards of fire flew around us, igniting the air. For a fraction of eternity, the cave lit up with an orange glow, a stark contrast to its usual blue. The sound was that of bursting glass, despite the planet being made of gas and fire and nothing else.

And in the explosion, the amethyst flew out of Tobirama's hand and into the gaping black hole beneath the great stone, which was still exposed.

Oh...

And slowly, very, very slowly, I saw one of the shards of fire land on my brother's body, and ignite it.

"No... No..." My voice was but a whisper.

I was still lying on the floor, weakened by the blood sacrifices, having used what little I had to throw my sword to Tobirama. But as I saw Madara's still fifteen-year-old body being licked by the flames, the fire climbing higher and higher, desperately aiming from his legs towards his face and then consuming that, too, forever, I roared. My brain told my body to stand up and run, but my body wouldn't listen. Instead, I crawled over the rough ground using my fingers, my nails bending off so that my fingertips bled. I wasn't aware of what Tobirama was doing at this point, I was so focussed on saving my brother. 

And suddenly, it was as if I burned, too.

I screamed, rolled over on my back and desperately writhed beneath the pain that was consuming body. I was almost blinded by the sensation, but used the little sight I had left to look at my hands.

Burns...

Tobirama!! I had managed to gift my sword to Tobirama!! When I had thrown it to him so he could defend himself against the burning orb, he had accepted it without thinking about it. And since it now would be impossible to give the amethyst back to the planet, meaning one of us must die... I have succeeded... I have succeeded in making the one to die be me.

And I was burning for it, the effect of not owning the sword coming much, much faster now than that first time when I had been ten, maybe because we'd been through so much together, me and the sword.

Tobirama noticed.

"No..." Tobirama's voice from very, very far away. "NOOOOOOOO!!" I heard him run to me, bend down at my side, tried to give me the sword as he realised what was happening. "TAKE IT!!"

"BUT I DON'T WANT IT!!" I screamed back.

"TAKE IT!! Izuna, please, I'm begging you!!"

I put my hand on his face, smiled. I felt happy. So, so happy. I closed my eyes, suppressed the pain by going into a blank space in my mind where there was only us. There were so many things I wanted to tell him there.

"The sword chose me because with it in hand, I would maintain peace. And I did. That sword led me to you. And I've changed you. The true peacekeeper isn't me. It's you." Tobirama was looking at me with a distorted face, a sadness so deep displayed on it, it surpassed the sadness he'd shown at Nicholas' side. It felt important. Selfish, but important. "I've gained my brother back. He's burned now. I've saved you. I've helped my kin. The amethyst is gone. Now, go make peace."

He grabbed my face, refusing to give us this moment.

"Don't you DARE!!" He screamed so loudly, my internals hurt. "Don't you DARE leave me like everyone else have already done!"

"But it hurts so much", I wheezed, the pain licking at my body as it burned. This was a million times worse than the blood sacrifice. It wasn't just a regular burn; this was something else entirely. I looked down on my fingers; the tips were black of necrosis.

Tobirama took my hand, desperately kissing my fingers, trying to love the dead tissue away.

"I love you", I said. "Please... Please end my suffering."

And with a scream, Tobirama stood up, took the sword, let the purple magic shoot down his arm, lifted it above me, the tip pointed towards my heart, put all of the force in the world behind it...

And turned and shoved the sword straight through the core of Great Planetarian.