a/n: More angsty wizards at war stuff!
The prompt was 'things you said after it was over' and I expanded it from my blog.
Disclaimer: Not you DD.
Title: to these ends
Word Count: 346
Summary: Tom and Carl have a moment after breaking the news that the world is ending. [tumblr prompt].
"Tom, Tom, look at me."
The ground rolled beneath his feet. Earth's gravity threatened to crush him as Tom saw the pulsing darkness rip through spells and tear wizards apart. The kids. The weight of the world never felt so heavy on his shoulders, the grief, the anger. The intervention had failed. He could only see the vacuum of space and the fear in the kids' eyes. The truth was a second pulse in his breastbone: The world is ending the world is ending the world is ending…
Carl helped him sit down on the sidewalk.
"We were supposed to have a fighting chance," Tom heard himself say. He looked down at his pale hands, almost not recognizing them in the dim evening twilight. He took in a deep breath of spring air. Around them, Tom could make out the quiet chatter of the grass and the faint humming of the stars. The existing wizardry in him itched at his fingertips.
You still have this.
It was one of the few comforts Tom had left. He had his partner and his magic still. As long as he could breathe then maybe there was something left of a fighting chance.
Carl put his arm around Tom's shoulders and pressed his mouth to Tom's temple. His voice was strained as he recited a line from the Oath that bound them together. "To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so—till Universe's end."
Tom dropped his head into his hands. "The kids, Carl. I'm scared."
"I am too." Carl's gray eyes were pale against his face. "I'm so scared about what's going to happen next." They were standing at the precipice of something awful and terrifying. There was no telling how the changes might start for them, their memories, their magic, their lives. And it would be left for the kids to save them all.
With hands intertwined, Tom and Carl sat in silence as the world ended around them.