He clambered into the meta's head, he struggled, the thoughts piercing his mind and slowing him down. The forms of formerly unknown AI, so familiar yet so distant, sprang forward.
It's him
The Alpha
We are here Alpha
But he paid them no mind, shoving their desperate pleas aside and burying them. He pushed and shoved, they could not stop him. Unlike them he wasn't some artificial intelligence, he was a ghost, a spectrum that couldn't be stopped.
The swirls of power and emotion entangled themselves around him. He fought harder, ramming through whatever walls and barriers that stood in his way with the deft stroke of a hand. He needed to keep going, he needed to keep plowing through. He wanted to see her, he wanted to hear her, he wanted to feel her. He pushed harder, the emotions and thoughts now retreated, overwhelmed with his own as he forced his way forward. His heart grew heavy- did he have a heart?- his throat ran dry- what skin was there to parch- and his eyes watered- were they eyes?
Finally, with a gasp and a brief shrill of pain, a meta cry that echoed off the walls of his head, he had dropped to where he wanted to be, to where he longed to be. "Tex." He breathed, his voice a dull sound in this second world.
She stood there, armor as dark as obsidian and helmet shining in golden light. He sucked in a breath, it looked like the sunlight was reflecting off her- as though in this small world, she belonged. "Church." The biting retort, the small hiss of words, he expected them to sting but the soft call of his name, it seemed, did more damage than he thought possible.
"I can get you out." He said quickly, hands moving forward before stopping. Could he touch her? If she was in here then could he be in here too? Could he be more than just the spectrum he thought himself to be? "It's not safe here." He urged.
"Leonard," she whispered. He hated that, he hated how she used his name to calm him but he loved it, he relished it. He wanted to curse, wanted to ask her why she was wasting time but the words would not form. "Please, this is what we need," she cooed, like a mother with her child, like a wife with her husband. She reached out, slowed, as though she couldn't imagine it.
"The last time I saw you like this, you didn't know who I was and you were so sad." She whispered. Church would have shut his eyes, he knew- just knew- what she meant.
"Tex you're being weird." His voice was weak and hoarse, it was failing. He could feel the whole world around them failing.
"No I'm not," Tex said after a moment, "I just want to see." He turned to her and suddenly the world was no longer the ethereal blue he had once thought to be. It was lush green, oak all across the once metal paneled floor with a small shack standing just a few odd metres behind him.
"I made this, I know I did." He whispered. And suddenly the memories crashed down, the emotions surged and his heart leaped to his throat. "Allison don't go!" He cried.
Turning on his spot he was horrified to see her, the woman he loved, the woman who was so strong and independent, leaving him- this lost lamb without her- to fend for himself. "It's okay." She said. And her face, her face, was suddenly pained as she strode forward. Long blonde hair bounced, a soft framed face edged in worry, and her hand as fine as dandelion brushed past his cheek. His cheek, he felt, not metal nor some holographic simulation. His own flesh and blood.
"Please, I don't want to say goodbye." He said. And on the inside he didn't care he looked like a baby, he didn't care he was pathetic looking. Because deep down inside, she was all he wanted, the only person in the world he would chase after even in death. His heart hurt, his chest heaved and the quiver in his lips physically stung him.
"I won't and neither will you," she comforted. "You and me, I and you. No goodbyes, forever by our sides." And she closed her eyes, rested her forehead against his and softly murmured, "To each we are, I am yours, and you are mine."
"I wish our worlds, so distant in memory, came closer together," He whispered, broken. "I wish we could start again, like that we dream, like that I dream." And then the world turned black and the last thing Leonard Church, the Alpha, ever felt was hands so much stronger than his wrap themselves around him.
Forever, they stayed. Their time now eternal.
