World's End
By Childhood Aspirations
Disclaimer: I do not own M.I.:2, the characters, the dialogue, etc...
Prologue
Ethan cradled her head in his lap, holding it gently with his hands. Those same hands that could wield weapons so efficiently were infinitely soft as they brushed her skin.
And the tears…
But she never saw them. She was long gone before he even found her.
He released an outraged, feral cry of anguish, lifting his head toward the sky. Thunder crashed in response, echoing in the distance. Within seconds, it was raining. His jaw-length brown hair was plastered to his face, but he didn't care.
Why would he care about something so trivial as his hair? The world had just ended.
His world had just ended.
He bent over her again, pressing his lips to her closed eyes, her cheeks, her mouth. An ordinary woman would have responded eagerly, passionately.
But then, Nyah had never been what you would call ordinary.
And now, regardless of what she had been, she was dead.
Dead…
The fact screamed through Ethan's mind as he held her, embraced her, swore to himself that he was never going to let go of her, no matter what. Doomsday could come, for all he cared; he was not going to leave her.
She was dead. Nyah was dead.
This could not be happening.
As he knelt there in the rain, Ethan Hunt came to another very important decision. Life had no purpose, no meaning, not anymore. He had no reason to live. The moment her frail body breathed its last, the moment her large brown eyes closed forever, his fate was sealed.
The very last moment when she must have stared up at the dark sky and wondered why he hadn't saved her, why he wasn't with her, to comfort her in her last hour…
…To tell her that he loved her…
He should have saved her. He should have been there. He should have comforted her. He should have told her that he loved her.
He knew all that.
Why else do you think he was dying, and just as surely as Nyah had?
He was still there when they found him, still hunched over her body, staring down at her still face with vacant eyes. He struggled mindlessly when they tried to pull him away from her, so they doped him.
Ethan Hunt was going to be out of the action for a while.
It's difficult for a person when their world ends. Sometimes it takes a while to recover.