A/N: Friendly reminder that this story is part of the LLF (Long Live Feedback) Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:

- Short reviews

- Long reviews

- Questions

- Constructive criticism

- "3" as extra 'favourites'

- Reader-reader interaction

This author sees and appreciates all comments, and does her best to reply to all of them, but may occasionally miss one.

If you do not want a response to your comments, sign with "whisper" and the author will see and appreciate the comment but will not respond.

.

A/N (personal): (Long, don't have to read). I'm back. Jac is back. Time to rock and roll.
So, to business... This is a little later than I'd intended to come back, but I've got a few chapters ahead, so I won't be tripping over my feet on what I've already posted. Will eventually catch up to myself, no doubt. You're going to get 2 chapters straight off, because I wrote them as one, but decided it was too long to post as one, so split it. If it doesn't read right, that's on me.
This work is set BETWEEN Dawn and War. There's 2 years there to play around with, and I'm going to make the most of them! I have read Revelations, and if you have you'll recognise bits and pieces. That being said, there were bits that messed up my plans, and bits I'd just didn't like, so you'll find some of the novella is used, some is changed up, and some is plain old ignored. (And some I completely go against, because I can). If you have a problem with any of that, feel free to leave now.
For the rest of you, enjoy!

.

.

A clouded eye, white misting the colour. One good pupil filled with hate, staring right into my heart, my soul. Everything laid bare.

"They hate you," Koba hissed. "They always will. Even Caesar won't trust you for long. He would have preferred me. It's your fault. If you hadn't come along, we would have been fine. It's all your fault."

I couldn't look away from him, no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how much I tried. The maze of jagged metal rose around us, trapping me in a tiny space with Koba's broken and bleeding body.

"He would have preferred if you'd never come back," Koba growled, his eye growing larger, swallowing me whole. Or maybe he was getting closer, raising himself up on broken arms, ignorant of the blood running down his face. "Even now," he growled, baring teeth I'd felt in my flesh, "you've lost."

He lunged, upon me without moving, and the gun came up from nowhere between us, my finger already on the trigger.

The gunshot ripped through us both, Koba falling backwards, blood everywhere, and I was falling too...

.

.

I came awake with a jerk and a gasp, my arms flailing, knocking the book out from under me to land on the floor with a thud. The sudden sound was loud in the silence, making me jump again, looking around wildly for mismatched eyes and viciously bared teeth...

Just a dream... I dropped my head into my hands, rubbing at my face. Just another dream. Just like every other night.

Slumping back in my chair, I rolled my head back, feeling the pain in my neck from sleeping on the desk, the result of my failed attempt to escape the nightmare.

"This wasn't meant to happen," I said aloud to the ceiling. "I stayed with you to stop anything like this." I sighed, closing my eyes. "You weren't meant to haunt us." Dropping my head forwards again, I opened my eyes and found Koba watching me from the doorway.

I jumped to my feet, the chair clattering to the floor behind me. The ape stepped back and I saw my mistake. He was taller than Koba, with two clear eyes for which he'd been named.

"Blue Eyes," I gasped, leaning on the desk, feeling my heart still thumping wildly in my chest. "You scared me."

The chimp moved slowly into the little office I'd taken over as I glanced up at the reason why I'd chosen this particular space; the clock. It seemed like something of a miracle, finding a working clock after so long. It had been years since I'd lived by hours and minutes, but the round face and silent movement of the hands made something in me tremble. It was like a piece of before.

"What's wrong?" I asked Blue Eyes, pulling myself out of the past. He didn't answer, still moving around restlessly, glancing out the window, reaching out to touch the walls, the desk, the pile of books. I waited. It couldn't be something urgent, like the arrival of the soldiers, if he was dithering this much.

I picked my chair up from the floor, pushing the book away as I watched him.

"What you do," Blue Eyes said slowly, his voice as quiet as ever, "when person die?"

I went still, turning the chair around and resting my feet on it, sitting on the desk as I rubbed the side of my left hand, considering. "Well, before... everything, it would depend on the person and their family. Lots of people were buried." I saw the flicker of his eyes and explained. "Under the ground. We would dig a hole, put the body in a box, and into the ground, then cover it up." His expression twitched, but I couldn't read it, so continued. "Other people wanted to be cremated—burned. Then their family would either keep the ashes or scatter them somewhere."

Blue Eyes looked away, out the window. Leaning to the side, I followed his gaze, looking across at the capitol building, and my right hand wandered further up my left, to the aching wound when the last two joints of my little finger were missing.

"Is this about the one who fell?" I asked. "Your friend?"

'Fell'? Something in me scoffed. More like 'was thrown'.

Blue Eyes gave an almost involuntary hoot, the sad note hanging in the air. "Ash," he said, after a moment.

I sighed quietly. So much death... My dream flashed before me again, my finger tightening on the trigger, the bullet exploding through Koba... I shivered. I hadn't killed him.

No, only watched him die, a scathing voice pointed out.

"I'm sorry," I said to Blue Eyes. "You should do something with his body." It'll start getting really nasty if you don't. "It'll give you some closure."

"Where is he?"

I frowned, pushing to my feet. "He's not over there? Someone moved him?"

Blue Eyes shook his head. "Something there... it not him. Where is he? Now."

I stared at him and felt my eyes fill with tears. "He..." I swallowed and cleared my throat, trying to blink the tears back down. "He's gone. He's not there anymore. He's part of his family, his friends. Part of you."

Blue Eyes frowned, finally looking at me. "How? Not here?"

I squirmed internally. How had I ended up trying to explain theories about death to a chimpanzee? "No, he's not here. He's dead. Gone. But..." I rubbed my finger again, feeling every one of Ellie's neat stitches as I wondered how to explain. "Every time you remember him, every time you think of him, or do something you would have done with him, or something he taught you... that's how he stays here. By living through you, through your actions."

He was still frowning, looking away through the window.

"What do did you when someone died in the forest? You must have lost people before?"

Blue Eyes huffed, his hand twitching in a sign as he ducked his head from side to side. "Some," he said eventually. "Cold. The..." he frowned, thinking, "...not young?"

"Old." I gave him the word, nodding. Chimps weren't native to this climate, they came from tropical rainforests in Africa. It was amazing that they had adapted to survive in California at all.

"So what did you do," I asked, dragging myself back to the present, "after they died?"

Blue Eyes frowned. "Put in trees. In nests. Father went."

Of course he had. Caesar had taken on more than just responsibility, he'd taken on the belief, in his heart, that every life in his troop was his to protect. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would be his downfall.

"Do you want to do that for Ash?"

Blue Eyes huffed again, gesturing out the window. "No big trees," he pointed out.

I grimaced. That was true. No trees here of the size they were used to. So what other options were there for Blue Eyes and his friend?

Given his lack of night-vision and the apes' discomfort when we'd travelled through the subway tunnels, I didn't think he'd want to bury Ash underground.

Burning him? Maybe not after their home had been burnt to the ground.

What else? I bit my lip. If not fire... water?

"You could give him to the sea?"

Blue Eyes lifted his head. "The sea?" he asked, confused.

I nodded. "Did he like the water?"

Blue Eyes tilted his head in what I guess was equivalent to a shrug, then nodded. "Why?" he huffed.

"For closure," I said firmly. He needed to do something, he wouldn't be here if he didn't. "A way to say goodbye." I stood up. "Come on, I need to get some stuff, you want to come?"

He followed me to the door in answer, and we descended together in silence.