"He isn't going to be able to do it."
Saying it makes it more real, more final still he does it knowing that for once he is completely right. Never mind Sirius mouth or the cries of dismay and dismissal. He looks the old man in the eye and isn't even surprised by the resignation therein. Stands and sets the report on the desk along with a vial of the serum. Walks away to tidy his affairs hoping for once that he'll just fucking die this time. If he doesn't. If he doesn't… Sighs as he steps over the broken glassware.
o0o
Twenty-three years of horror ending as anticlimactic as a gunshot to the head. Feeling the malice bleeding onto his neck, his shoulders as he refuses to kneel to the mockery of a man before him. "Severus, my prodigal child…" The eyes are perfectly red like some cliché he should be reaching for but is too preoccupied to. And the great lord Riddle has been too lazy to practice his occulmacy. Has been to prideful to think one of his servants could override him like a wave smothering a sandcastle.
Laughter, his own as he retreats in seeming horror from the glistening tumoral malacia caging about in Voldemort's head. Honestly hysterical as the creature crawls into his mind surging through the twisting and turns. Deeper, ever deeper before the sentient malignance realizes it has stepped into a trap it'll never escape in time and already the construction is spiraling away into the hungry darkness. Screams either his or the other's as their mind shudder and crack into a million bleeding piece.
The maw claws at his soul and there isn't enough awareness left in him to recognize he should care, but there are voices and lights as the cavalry arrives. The colors of white and blue halts his fall even as the mutilated hulk that is/was Tom is sucked into the abyss. "Severus?" Blacking out.
o0o
Consciousness without reference is what he wakes to. Consciousness without the attendant self-awareness. In another life he would have damned his luck, but laughed to know he is always the most unlucky. Watching his hand knowing neither that it is his own nor even what to call it. Looking up at the gasping nurse as she drops his breakfast tray. Barely able to turn his head as she calls in reinforcements. Listening to the noises and becoming agitated, becoming scared less from confusion then instinctive fear feeling the power flooding the room. Power he is generating, is releasing even as he screams, sobs.
The destruction sees him moved to another room.
Days passed in captivity as again and again the mark on his arm flares with pain. Until finally it's gone and a voice from inside his skull mutters sardonically. Smiling not in neither amusement nor even understanding. Shifting in the lap of the big man who calms him. "t's ova' littlum. Tanks ta' you an' Arry." Smiling back at the smile given and just as clueless as ever. Cringing from the green-eyed man who distresses him.
o0o
The white and blue sits beside him clutching a vial of purple. "Its been a year dear boy. You made me swear just before you left not to hold onto a shell." Head tilted like a curious dog eyes empty and perfectly alien in their emptiness. "Severus, if you're there I need you to response if you can." Smiling at the nice voice patting the hand wrapped around his wrist. Babbling happily as the wizard locks the door knowing what he's doing is wrong. "Look at me child." Something wrong and a tidal wave of revulsion. Crouched shaking on the bed as the older man shakes with horror. "Your mind is a ruin boy… There had to have been another wave, surely…" A sort of sleepiness as his hand takes the vial and tilts it into his mouth swallowing quickly. A deeper sleepiness as it begins to work.
o0o
Sitting in a submerged corner shivering from shock and an unnatural cold. It's getting darker as something wrenches away his feeble powers. " About time Albus do you know how long I've waited here?" Not expecting answers Severus waits for the collapse of the rapidly weakening structure he huddles in. "Tsk, couldn't even die right."