"Swear to me." She interrupted, "Swear to me that everything you said about the fireflies is true."

Her mind was racing. A million thoughts flying through her head and Riley's face in front of it all. It couldn't have all been for nothing.

The man standing in front of her took it all away. Everything she had been working for. She fought for this. She fought so that she could be the cure, the cure that saved everyone. But Joel took that from her. She had nothing left to fight for. Except him.

Her life had been full of goodbyes. First when her parents left her, then her friends. Then Rylie died, and Marlene found her. Now Marlene was dead, thanks to Joel.

Yet she couldn't find it in herself to hate him. She had spent everyday with the man for nearly a year. He had been with her through it all. He taught her how to survive. He protected her. They had each other's backs through the fighting and the nightmares.

He was the one thing she could depend on to always be there. He would always be on her side. They went together wherever they went. The one rule. She would follow wherever he went and he would always make sure she was safe.

They couldn't live without one another.

Back with the fireflies, she hadn't known that the surgery was going to kill her. All she remembered was waking up to someone expelling water from her lungs. There were blinding white lights all around her.

Marlene had leaned over her, a frown etched on her face. The young girl felt someone stroking her hair. She had tried to ask about Joel but she felt a prick in her arm and everything started to go black.

She woke up in the pickup truck.

She hadn't wanted to die. She was actually quite relieved that she was still alive. She knew that Joel would never leave her there while he still had breath in his lungs. But she knew that her life could've saved so many more.

It would have killed him though. Ellie knew that her death would mean Joel's. He told her that you need to keep finding something to fight for. She was his reason. He needed her. She hadn't had the chance to save everyone. But she did save him.

His eyes were unwavering, staring straight into hers. They were reading each other like they had so many times before when they needed to be quiet around enemies, or when one was hurting, or in those dark hours of the night when one shot up from nightmares.

Both their eyes were so cloudy.

Joel paused in long thought. When he finally opened his mouth his voice was low and there was no hesitation.

"I swear."

There it was. She didn't know how to feel. Should she thank him for saving her. Thank him for loving her so unconditionally that he would deny the human race their salvation.

She would ask him. He would tell her exactly what happened that day that made him snap.

You're okay. You're okay. Oh god. We're ok. Common baby girl. We're ok. You're okay baby girl.

We're okay.

"Okay."

She knew he was lying. But she believed him. They would be okay. She knew she could fight for him.

His face had the resolve and the calm that it had in front of danger. The face he made when he was surviving. If there was one thing that Joel was good at it was surviving.

If the two of them could survive, so could everyone else. Day by day they would keep fighting. They would make it.

She wanted to save everyone but the truth is that you can't save people from themselves. Even if they had found a cure, the fireflies would be the only ones with access to it.

Ellie knew, better than most kids her age, that disasters brought out the worst in people. The fireflies would use their leverage to gain what power they could before saving everyone.

It was a long shot anyway.

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Guys this ending has me so shook. I've rewatched the last 5 minutes at least 15 times. I can't process this.