Cole and Alex found themselves standing atop one of Manhattan's numerous high-rise buildings. Nearly thirty stories up in the air, the conflict occurring below them almost seemed serene, as if it wasn't really happening, just a movie playing out in the distance. The two men looked at each other for a moment, then Cole began to speak, having finally decided where he wanted to begin.

"Alright," he sighed, "let's start at the beginning. Were you the one who released this virus?"

Alex paused, thinking over his answer, as if trying to figure it out himself. "Yes and no. The man who set this all into motion died in Penn Station, but I haven't helped much either. I assume you were the one in Times Square sending down the lightning. That… thing was Elizabeth Greene."

"Who… There was a person in there?" Cole asked, somewhat stunned.

Mercer only nodded. "And I was the one who let her loose. I know now. Freeing Elizabeth Greene was a mistake. She was a monster, infecting everything she touched. She was being held captive by Gentek, under Blackwatch's supervision. I thought she was the key to all of this."

"Was she?"

"In a way. We were connected, both of us infected with related strains of the virus. She was at the center of this, ever since Hope, Idaho."

With a confused look on his face, Cole motioned for him to continue, knowing that he was likely to get a long explanation that would raise more questions than answers. He hated conspiracies.

"Hope was a Blackwatch project. The goal was to create a viral weapon that could be used to target specific racial types. But Hope went wrong. A mutated virus infected all those people, drove them mad. Their bodies crawled with hell… And at the center of it all was Elizabeth Greene. Somehow she survived, endured the virus, absorbed it, changed it, whatever. Her unique biology inspired this new bioweapons research program. This became Gentek, and Dr. Alex Mercer worked for them. There was one leak too many and General Randall out there," Alex pointed to the hazy form of the aircraft carrier floating in the water out in the distance, "stepped in to shut it down. No one was safe. Dr. Mercer fled the scene with a sample of the virus, took it as insurance if he needed it. Blackwatch cornered him at Penn Station. With his back to the wall, he released the virus on Manhattan. It became… me." He paused here, somehow finding it easier to accept what he was not than what he was. "I… am… the virus. And I, in turn, released Elizabeth Greene to infect the city a second time. Now she's dead, alright, but Randall won't accept that the virus can be stopped. With Firebreak, he'll level the city, just like Hope."

"Hold on. He's going to nuke the city?" Cole asked, incredulous.

Alex nodded again. "The launch time is set for a few hours from now."

"Well," Cole asked, still processing the fact that Manhattan might not be here come sunrise, "what are we going to do about it?"

"I've got a contact who can get me onto the Reagan."

"Wait, stop. Is this contact of yours the same one who set up all those phone booth drops?"

At this, Mercer's brow furrowed. "You know him?"

"I met with him. He's dead."

"When?"

"Last night."

A long pause intervened as Alex took this in. "What killed him?" Another slight pause. "And what the hell were you doing talking to him?"

"We were ambushed by z- Infected. Something… tall, two-legged, with a blade for one arm-"

"Sh-, that's not good," Alex groaned, a look of recognition on his face. "I just talked with him today."

"You mean that thing can..?"

"Just like me…" Alex answered. He grit his teeth in frustration when he realized that he should have seen this coming. That thing, the Supreme Hunter, had already shown that it had at least some of his own abilities. And why wouldn't it? It had been spawned from the very parasite that had plagued him just before Dana had been captured. He'd injected it into Greene when he'd gone in to rescue his sister, and the reaction created the creature. "Wait," he remembered, cutting off his train of thought as he realized that MacGrath had left one question unanswered, "how did you get in contact with Cross in the first place?"

"Dr. Ragland gave me a map."

Mercer muttered angrily for a few moments, upset at the doctor's complete disregard for his own and his sister's safety. What if Cole had been a Blackwatch agent?

"I still don't get where he fits in in all this," Cole continued, ignoring Alex's reaction. "Was he a colleague of your-" he corrected himself, "Dr. Mercer's?"

"How'd you find him?"

"I followed you there. Now, come on, who is he?"

Now Alex's irritation was turned on himself for allowing Cole to track him so easily. True, MacGrath was no ordinary man, but a sufficiently stealthy Supersoldier could have done the same thing. "He used to work with REDLIGHT, what Greene was infected with. I needed his help, so I tracked him down." The full story was a bit more complicated than that, but he was getting tired of all the questions.

"And the woman you saved, Dana?"

Mercer's frustration spiked at this question. "That's not important right now," he said angrily. With an exasperated sigh, he looked out towards the Reagan, thinking about his plan ahead. "If you're right, I've not only got to diffuse that bomb, but take that creature out for good."

"I'm coming with you," Cole told him forcefully. He knew that Alex could probably handle either task, but the risk of failure was too high for Cole to just wait around and hope he could handle both.

"No, you're not. I still need it to get me onto the Reagan. It sees us together, and it knows that I know, and the whole thing could be off," Alex explained. "You're staying here."

Cole was about to protest, but Mercer's expression made it clear that that particular discussion was over. Besides, he did have a point. "Fine. You stop the nuke, kill that thing that ate Cross-"

"Consume General Randall," Alex interrupted.

"That, too," Cole continued, a noticeably disgusted look on his face. He was about to ask if it was really necessary, but had a feeling it was futile, and instead continued along his original train of thought. "Then what? There's still zombies everywhere."

"Infected."

"Whatever." He'd really had it with this insistence on calling them "Infected." Honestly, what difference did it make?

"It's only a matter of time now before Blackwatch wipes them out. When I killed Greene, I effectively cut off their head, destroyed their leader. They have no direction now, they're just a bunch of-"

"Zombies," Cole finished, a smile creeping across his face.

Alex gave him a look, but admitted that he was right.

"Ok, but what about other leaders? Could another runner take over in her place?"

There was a brief silence. "Just how much did Cross tell you?"

"Oh, he told me all about you."

"I know what you're getting at. The answer is no, I won't. Not even to have them all kill themselves. I tried tapping into the hivemind once… even the weak connection I established was almost too much for me."

Alex looked impatiently towards the West, and through a break in the buildings he saw that the sun had fully set. He had to move, "Cross" was almost certainly waiting for him now to continue with their plan. He was anxious and on edge, ready for the inevitable fight and wanting it to be over as soon as possible. This was the end of it all, he could feel it, and each moment that passed was a moment that could have been spent stopping this madness.

"You wanted to know whether I was too much of a threat to be left alive," he said, turning to face the man who'd tracked him for God only knew how long as he climbed atop the small ledge encircling the top of the building. "Hopefully this will answer that for you." With that, he leapt into the air, and in a few moments, he had completely disappeared from Cole's view, leaving him alone on the rooftop as if there's never been anyone there in the first place.

"You think you're ready?" The distorted voice of Cross, or at least the thing that had eaten Cross, asked. The sky behind him was starting to darken, but the city still glowed bright, lit both by electric lights and raging fires as the two factions continued to battle nearby.

"I was made for this," Alex replied, finally turning and facing him after the long conversation they had had. The "Captain" had had a lot of the same questions as MacGrath, but was more concerned with what had happened on the island and the conspiracy behind it, less so with Mercer himself. Obviously, he wasn't the only one trying to fill in the blanks.

Satisfied with Alex's answer, the impostor removed his white face mask, allowing him to speak with his normal voice. "Citadel command, this is Captain Cross," he said into his radio. "Mission accomplished. I have Colonel Taggart in custody, ready for extraction."

A confirmation crackled over the line, then the device fell silent. On cue, a rustling noise was heard, and the form of Taggart stood in place of Alex's. Following the plan, "Cross" drew a pair of handcuffs from his belt, motioning for "Taggart" to turn around. They were utterly useless against the arms they were placed on, but appearances were everything in this ploy. Several tense minutes followed as the pair awaited the extraction chopper, each mentally rehearsing their roles. Alex knew he would have to play along until even after the two of them had stepped onto the Reagan. He didn't know what the Supreme Hunter had planned, whether he would be left alone long enough to disable the bomb and kill Randall, but he didn't want to get into a fight with the thing any sooner than he had to.

The pulsing thrum of an approaching helicopter snapped him out of his thoughts. Looking as resigned and worried as he could, he stepped into the vehicle, "Cross" right behind him. The short trip to the aircraft carrier seemed to stretch on and on, brought on by the excitable nervousness that came with sitting less than a foot from the only creature left alive that could potentially kill him. Alex was ready to fight, ready to consume and slaughter anything that stood in his way, but he forced the thoughts down, instead focusing on Taggart's memories, letting his persona bleed into his own for the moment. Finally, the helicopter touched down on the deck, shutting off its engine as the platform below it descended. The side doors opened, revealing the dark interior of the ship. General Randall was already waiting for them close by, but not another soul could be seen.

"Report!"

"Taggart's order led directly to the collapse of the central blue zone."

Before the "Captain" could even finish his sentence, Randall had already taken out a pistol, aimed it at "Taggart's" head, and fired. Though he felt virtually no pain, Alex fell to the ground, going limp and making as great an effort as he could to stop his body from healing itself, just for a few minutes while he waited for Randall to be distracted. Just a quick, stealthy consume, and he'd have one less problem to deal with.

"Welcome home," the General said to "Cross" with surprising nonchalance. "Operation Redlight is over."

As the two walked away, Alex remained still, barely even breathing, thankful for his practice at appearing dead when he was trying to get to McMullen. Hopefully this mission would end a lot better. The voices fading, he slowly and quietly got to his feet, following cautiously behind Randall, inching closer and closer until he was certain he could reach out and easily grab him. Still talking with the "Captain," the now group of three walked up to the nuclear missile, ready for launch in a small cart that could be angled upward for use as a guide. The bomb was electronically timed to go off in just over six minutes.

Damn, we're cutting this close… Alex thought as he stood behind his target, listening to his last words.

"When you have a festering wound, you cauterize it. We'll be saving millions of American li-" the rest of the word devolved into a choking gurgle as Alex gripped him tightly around the throat, cutting off even that as he quickly snapped his neck and let the red-black tendrils do the rest. "Cross" backed away as Randall was consumed and Alex returned to looking like himself, a flood of memories rushing to the forefront of Alex's mind. He saw it all, the entire Hope operation, from the moment the military had been called in to the entire town's destruction at the hands of a tactical nuke. Two things had survived, though, escorted out of the area under strict quarantine and containment procedures. One was Elizabeth Greene. The other was her child, born mere hours before Hope was wiped off the map. Greene had eventually been transported to the Gentek building in New York, but where the child had gone, and for that matter what it even was was yet another mystery for Alex to unravel. Always more questions than answers, always more questions than answers.

"You bastard, you could have stopped all this," he muttered to himself, starting to once again pay attention to the here and now instead of the recollections of a dead man. "You let it happen."

In silence, still shaken from the new information, Alex walked slowly to the bomb's control panel, pretending to disarm it as he watched the screen's timer count down past five minutes, beeping a warning to anyone nearby. At the five minute mark, hydraulics below the deck activated, raising the platform up to the main deck of the carrier, taking the nuke, Alex, and "Cross" with it into the quickly cooling night air. There were a few quiet footsteps behind him as "Cross" approached, and Alex subtly tensed. He partially turned to bring the impostor into his field of vision and, without even the slightest warning, whirled around and landed a shattering right hook on the man's jaw, knocking him to the floor. Before he could react, Alex was upon him, beating the creature senseless with a flurry of blows to its head. There was an inhuman gurgling as "Cross's" form began to shift, the dark uniform melting away to be replaced by pink, tumor-covered skin.

Knowing that he didn't have the time to go toe to toe with the rapidly recovering monster, Alex searched around the deck of the carrier for a quick and easy solution. He spied a spool of heavy cable, normally used to bring incoming aircraft to a halt, and an idea came to mind. Landing one last BLACKLIGHT-enhanced punch on the Supreme Hunter, he transformed his arm into a whip-like appendage, not even waiting for the red and black tendrils to clear away before he shot it out at the coil of cable. He felt a satisfying thud as the claws embedded into the metallic spool, and immediately yanked it back, ripping its bolts free of the deck. With the large container still in one now human-looking hand, he backed away from the infected beast, letting it stumble to its feet before he leapt forward, shouldering it backwards onto the nuclear missile. It fell, crashing into the cart and nearly knocking the nuke free of its guide rails. Working as quickly as he could, Alex wrapped the cable around the towering creature and the cart, binding the two tightly together. Perhaps realizing what he was planning, it struggled fiercely, threatening to snap the few loops he'd already managed to get around it. With all his strength, he tightened the cable tight enough to cut into the beast's tumor-covered skin. Infected blood, deep purple-red, dripped onto the deck as Alex threw a few more coils around the bellowing, howling creature, finishing off his work with a few crude knots to keep the cable secure.

Now what? he thought. Now that the cart had a very angry Supreme Hunter lashed to it, he wasn't going to be able to input Randall's code to stop the detonation, or redirect it to have it fire off towards the ocean. That left one option…

Digging into the memories of the pilots he'd consumed, Alex chained the entire package, cart, missile, and still shrieking creature, to a nearby helicopter with almost practiced ease. He climbed in, waiting for the rotors to get up to speed, an agonizingly slow process, before he urged the chopper upward and eastward towards the ocean and the rising moon. It would have been a beautiful sight, and it might have held Alex's attention for a few moments if he hadn't been too busy straining the engine of the craft in an effort to get far enough out to safely drop the nuke. The helicopter was frustratingly sluggish from all the weight it was carrying, both from the cart attached below and the unnatural mass of its pilot. With little time left, Alex released the cart, sending it into the water below and dragging the Supreme Hunter with it.

Not certain of how long he had before the bomb detonated, he spun the chopper around and started flying towards the mainland, only to be overtaken by the nuke's shockwave mere seconds later…

An explosion shook the evening as a stray spark ignited the fuel tank of the helicopter Cole had tried to hitch a ride on. He hadn't even had a chance to inform the pilot of where to take him, and now he was desperately gliding away from the falling wreckage, not wanting to be caught under it. Feet safely on the ground, he turned back and cursed at the mess he'd inadvertently caused, running to the nearly destroyed cockpit to try to rescue the pilot and gunner still trapped inside. With a grunt, he pried open the door and dragged the two men out and onto the pavement a safe distance away. He bent down over the wounded pilot and, building up a charge, sent a jolt of his own energy into the man, healing him almost instantly. Not wasting any time, he turned to the gunner and did the same, then left quickly before the two could regain their senses.

"Keys?" he heard one ask as he rounded a nearby corner.

"No, I don't know what the hell that was either," the other replied, his answer fading as Cole put more distance between them and himself.

As he jogged away, he ran though a number of scenarios in his mind, trying to think of some way to get out onto the carrier and help Mercer defeat that… thing. He stopped at the edge of the island, looking out towards the Reagan floating deceptively peacefully out on the water… the deadly, deadly barrier of water. His only way out there was to somehow fly his way there, and as he'd just found out, helicopters fell squarely into the category of things that blew up when he touched them. Frustrated, he threw up his hands, giving up on the seemingly impossible task. Mercer had supposedly beaten this thing before, it was up to him to do it again, much to Cole's vexation. Sighing, he changed his course and instead headed for St. Paul's Hospital, where Dana would likely still be waiting.

Running though the streets of Manhattan, cutting around those few areas still infested with zombies, he considered what was left to do. With the military without their fanatical general and his nuke, chances were good that they'd just continue to clean up what was left of the infection. If Mercer was to be believed, it wouldn't be that difficult, compared to the nearly three weeks of hell they'd already been through. Either way, it'd already been over a week since he'd left Empire City and, ultimately, he'd done what he'd came here to do. It was time to hit the road and start heading south, back home.

Finally arriving at the hospital, he quietly pushed open the door, walking into the room Dana had claimed as her own for the time being. She was, as usual, engaged in her work on her laptop, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a flurry of soft clicks. Hearing him enter, she looked up and smiled, the expression making Cole feel sick at heart, knowing that he was going to be gone before the sun rose again. Seeing the subtle melancholy in his face, she asked what was wrong.

"I'm sorry," he replied, stepping forward and sitting on the other bed, "but I have to start leaving."

"Going back to Empire City?"

He nodded. "I think things are actually finally starting to die down here."

"You really think so?" she asked, almost not believing that this ordeal would ever end.

"The zombies are wandering around like zombies now, not like an army like they were before," Cole explained, paraphrasing what Mercer had said earlier.

Sarcastically, still not convinced that this could actually be ending, she asked, "Then the military just mops up everything up, right?"

"They're going to have to." With this, he motioned out the window, the shades pulled back to reveal the rising moon outside. "I ran into Alex Mercer while I was out there. He's certain that they've got a nuke ready to go out on that aircraft carrier, and he's not going to wait until they have a chance to fire it. In fact, he's probably dealing with it ri-"

His words were cut off by a deafening boom as a blinding light flashed behind him. With a shocked expression on their faces, they both turned to the window. Outside, the glow from the explosion was just starting to fade as the shockwave hit, rattling the windows and shaking the entire hospital. In a panic, Ragland rushed into the room.

"That was just offshore!" he exclaimed, looking out the window at the slowly dimming eastern sky. "What the hell is going on?"

"That," Cole said, astonished, "was the nuke."

"What happened?" Dana asked.

"I don't know." Cole squinted as he scanned the view outside. "I don't see any trails from it being fired. Looks like it was just dropped out there. From what Mercer told me, it probably was on a set timer, blew up in its own."

"Do you think Mercer survived?" she asked, doing her best not to let concern creep into her voice.

"I doubt it. He probably didn't have much time to get it that far out and come back. That shockwave would have knocked down anything he was flying."

The three fell silent after that, apprehensive of what would happen now.

Having pulled himself back together on the rocks that passed for the shore of Manhattan island, a wholly unpleasant experience, Alex found himself walking through the night, not sure of his destination. With the light from the explosion now nothing more than a dim glow behind him, he contemplated his place in the world, what he would do next. He'd gotten his answers, however painful they'd been, and now that the Infection was collapsing in on itself and the military were on their way to victory, what was there left for him to do? There were still questions unanswered, true, there always were, but what then, once even those mysteries were solved? Was he really about to follow this conspiracy to the ends of the Earth, leaving a trail of corpses behind him? His victory in finding and killing those responsible for the virus that had nearly wiped out Manhattan seemed rather hollow now. Countless people had died regardless, a significant percentage by his own hands, virtually all if he counted himself responsible for those taken by Greene and REDLIGHT. Hunting down the secrets behind his and Greene's existence hadn't done much other than satisfy his need to know, to fill in the blanks as to why everything had been happening. Now he knew the truth, now Manhattan was safe, now Dana was safe.

He supposed that anyone watching the denotation of the nuke figured he was dead now. To be honest, he'd thought so too as the blast had overtaken him. Surprisingly, this had somehow relieved him at the time, though he couldn't remember the half-formed reason why. For the moment, though, he was probably off of Blackwatch's radar. Maybe this was his chance to finally slip away. First though, he needed to see Dana. Following her capture, he'd been paranoid about visiting the hospital, for fear that someone or something would track him there and get their hands on her again. Someone already had, but he had been fortunate that MacGrath hadn't been an agent of either the military or the Infected. He deeply hoped that Ragland had been able to do something for her, that she wasn't still in a coma. He was ready to leave Manhattan behind, and he didn't want to do it without Dana. Even if he had no right to keep thinking of her as his sister...

In the hospital, Dana was sitting solemnly on one of the beds, Cole beside her. He was beginning to suspect, from her reaction, that she'd known Mercer well. He had saved her after all. Perhaps she was his girlfriend, or, dear God he hoped not, his sister.

"You know what," she suddenly said, her voice turning frustrated, "I've had it with this f-king city. I think I'll leave as soon as that goddamn quarantine gets lifted."

"Do you have any idea where you'd go?" he asked, concerned, yet, despite his better judgement, seeing an opportunity.

She sighed, saddened. "I'll figure something out."

Cole paused, uncomfortable, before he finally got out what he'd been thinking. "I hear Empire City's nice this time of year," he said, a thinly veiled suggestion.

They looked at each other for some time, and before they knew exactly what was happening, Cole found himself comforting her with a hug. It was at this moment that, following Murphy's law, Alex walked through the doorway.

"MacGrath!" he shouted angrily, surprising both of them and ending the embrace.

"Mercer!" Cole responded, shocked by his sudden appearance.

"Alex!" Dana exclaimed happily, relieved to see him again after she had believed him dead. Getting up off the hospital bed, she gave him a hug of his own, but stopped it short as he subtly pulled back in her arms.

"Dana?" Alex asked, concerned and confused about what he'd just witnessed.

"Cole?" Dana questioned. She had a feeling why Alex had been so upset that they'd been together.

"Dana!" Cole was stunned.

At some point during the reunion, Ragland had come to investigate all the shouting. Noticing him in the doorway, Alex turned, ready to scold the doctor at length for having trusted MacGrath at all.

"Ragland!" he bellowed. The doctor, knowing exactly what was coming, retreated back into the hallway, followed closely by Mercer, looking as menacing as ever. Alone again, there was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

"Don't tell me he's the brother you were talking about… the overprotective one?" he said, breaking the quiet. He already knew what the answer was, he just wanted Dana to confirm it.

"He is." Though she wasn't looking at him, Dana could practically hear Cole wince.

"Shit…"

A/N: Yes, this entire goddamned thing was just a lead-up for that final scene. The. Entire. Thing. Obviously, I'm not one for drabbles. You give me a funny little idea, I write an epic.

Well, it's been a long, long ride, but I'm glad you've stuck with me through my bouts of procrastination. Will there be a sequel? I don't know, it doesn't look like it right now. Maybe if Prototype gets a sequel itself. Until then, I've got no plot.

Goodnight everybody!