Anomaly

Episode 34- Sacrifice

"Jay, I'm sorry that I... no, that isn't right." There were sounds of irritated grumblings, followed by the crinkling of paper. "Jay, I know that I may have made some mistakes. But I still think I... no, he won't go for something like that, will he?" More sounds of crinkling paper. "... Robin, if you find this note, don't give it to Jay. Okay? Okay. Now Jay, since I know Robin just gave you the note- this isn't getting me anywhere."

With a indignant grunt, Corvin tossed the notebook and the pen he had been writing with to the side. He didn't even see the point in trying to write those two a note. He didn't even know where they were right now, so it wasn't like he could even give them any note to read. And if he did, it would probably be easier to just talk to them than give them a note. It was more for the effort of getting his mind on paper more than anything else, so he'd gone and found the quietest abandoned taxi in the street he could find, sat down on top of it, and began writing. But even that seemed to be getting him nowhere.

Besides, it wasn't like there was much else to do.

"The only thing I know about Heller's daughter is that she's somewhere in the Red Zone," Corvin muttered to himself as he curled his knee up onto his chest. "That's not exactly a small search radius. I don't have any other clues to go on, either. Hrn..." It seemed pretty hopeless now that he thought about it. He was nearing the point where he considered just letting the other Evolved find Amaya, despite Alex's high hopes that Corvin would be the one to do it. Now he could just probably go around from one base to the next, consuming every single human he saw in the hopes that one of them knew something, but he didn't want to give Jay another reason to have been right when he had yelled at Corvin.

Maybe he should spend this time to try and go find those two. He was getting really worried about-

Thwack!

He felt his head snap to the side forcefully, followed by the sound of something small and heavy falling onto the thin ceiling of the car. He froze momentarily, not in pain, but in surprise that something had actually been thrown at him. When his eyes dropped down to the offending object in question, he was even more surprised to see that it was a hand-sized piece of concrete.

"... A rock?" he muttered, his head straightening as he looked out towards the direction of where the object had come from. "Who's throwing rocks at me?"

"Down here." Following the voice, Corvin looked down. Of all things, it was a woman. A woman in a cheaply cut suit with a Gentek name-tag clipped onto her chest. So she was either one of Alex's Evolved, or she was an incredibly suicidal employee.

He looked closer, then nearly recoiled. Everything from the way she was looking at him to the way she was standing just screamed haughty, and she had this seemingly permanent sneer stuck to her face. Only an Evolved could have this level of arrogance surrounding them from first looks alone.

"Um... hi." Corvin lifted his arm and gave a little wave. "Why'd you throw a rock at me?"

"That's your immediate reaction?" she asked him. "You're not going to flip out and threaten to rip off my head or anything like that? You're just going to sit on top of that car and gawk at me?"

Now he was even more confused. "Excuse me?"

"You're the psycho that Alex paraded into our home base," the Evolved continued. "The one who killed that one guy in front of all of us? The guy that murdered who knows how many Blackwatch soldiers? You're kind of infamous, you know."

"Really?" Corvin cupped his chin with his hand. "I didn't know I left that kind of effect on you people." He'd committed some intimidating actions, sure, but he didn't know he left this kind of interpretation. Then again, he didn't like them too much. It wasn't much of a stretch to consider he never really tried giving a good impression on them.

"You didn't. You mostly just come off as a guy with a lot of issues who's ready to snap at somebody at a moment's notice."

Corvin frowned. "I just met you and already I can tell I don't like you." He spun his body towards the woman and pushed himself off of the taxi and onto his feet right in front of her. "Look, Mrs.-" he squinted and leaned in closer to look at her name-tag- "Galloway," he said, "usually I would try my best to deny all of those claims you just made about me, but you've caught me in a particularly bad mood. So can you please just do us both a favor and spit out the reason why I'm talking to you?"

She huffed, crossed her arms, and turned her head away from him all in one movement. "I didn't expect to find you here. You just happen to be sitting in my meeting point," she said. A thoughtful look came upon her face, though she was still turned away from him. "Though, since you're here-"

"Nope."

The woman did a double-take, then fully faced him. "Excuse me?"

"I said no. I'm not helping you with whatever it is you were about to ask me," Corvin said. "In fact, I'm just going to get out of here before you drag me into whatever it is you're doing."

"No you don't." Her hand shot out and roughly grabbed Corvin's wrist before he could move. "This concerns the both of us, okay? Hell, this concerns everybody in this whole city, it concerns Alex, it concerns-"

Corvin felt his eyes slowly hover down to the hand. "Please release me right now, Galloway." He tried his best at being polite with her, but he was finding it exceedingly hard to be nice to an Evolved woman who likely spent her free time playing as a Gentek exec for a plan of Alex's that wasn't even valid anymore. As he saw it, half of Alex's Evolved weren't even necessary anymore now that the need to manipulate Blackwatch and Gentek for the Whitelight as gone. Nobody at all would probably miss her being dead. The knowledge of that made it really hard not to rip the arm that was holding him off right now.

Galloway released a frustrated sigh. "Would you just calm down and listen-"

CRASH!

Something impacted the concrete near the two of them hard enough to kick up a cloud of dust. In the time that it took Corvin to turn his head towards the source, a large blade had already taken residence right under his chin.

"One of you better explain why the hell you two are breathin' next to each other 'fore I brain the both of you." That voice was almost a tell-tale sign at this point. The grammar, even more so. And there wasn't mistaking the crimson glow that was shining outside of the black tendrils connecting that blade to its owner, who was now currently glaring very angrily down at Corvin.

Corvin's face fell. "... Hi, Heller." He shook off Galloway's hand and flicked his pupils up to Heller's face without moving his head. "Fancy seeing you here." His eyes flicked downwards to the blade. "I see you took my advice for once."

It was definitely an improvement over the old one. A more organic, streamline-looking blade that shone off that metallic silver sheen instead of that dull dark-gray his old blade had. Something that looked like it could actually hurt Corvin if Heller actually put effort into it. It was actually admirable in some way. Too bad it was attached to this man.

Corvin quickly ducked his head back and parried the blade away with his own before it could cut into his neck. The two pressed their blades against one another, with their faces nearly pressed together as they struggled. This was put to an end when a pair of hands pressed against their chests and pushed them away.

"Look, I don't know what kind of beef the two of you have between you, but this isn't the time." Galloway looked more annoyed than anything, something Corvin would give her a bit of credit for considering who she was standing next to. Her head turned towards Heller. "James, stop trying to kill the brat."

"Kid's a fuckin' psycho," Heller argued. His blade was still readied and aimed right at Corvin.

Rolling her eyes, Galloway turned to Corvin. "Brat, stop trying to antagonize James."

"I really want to kill him." Mostly for the bungling of Alex's plan. Partly because technically that order Alex had given him was still active. He supposed the fact that he was hunting his daughter down played a small part as well. "Galloway, I wan an explanation."

"I do, too," Heller said. He went as far as to turn his arm back to normal and cross then, so Corvin did the same and pocketed his hands. Their glares then turned to Galloway, who still looked more annoyed than anything else.

"He happened to be in the meeting point, okay?" she said to James. "I didn't know he'd be here, but maybe we could use his help." James didn't respond to this statement, but his doubtful look said enough.

"Why would I possibly want to help him?" Corvin asked. "In fact, why are you helping him at all? You're one of Alex's Evolved. Would have thought he'd have eaten you by now."

Galloway turned to Corvin. "Because we share the common interest of not dying, so we worked together a bit. Now we need to do it again in that same interest."

That did absolutely nothing to convince Corvin that any of this was good for him. "Really, now? So what exactly is so bad that you two are working together right now?"

"Right now? As it right this instant?" Galloway asked. "Well, right now Blackwatch is deciding to cut its losses and liquidate the city. You and James and Alex and all the rest of the infected in this city are starting to become a really big problem for them."

"I think we've all been a really big problem for them since the start of all of this," Corvin said. "Nothing's really changed all that much."

"Oh, nothing?" she challenged. "Nothing like the millions of dollars worth of equipment you and James alone have destroyed? The death tolls? Any of this ringing any bells?"

"Vaguely," said both Corvin and James simultaneously. This caused them to momentarily glare angrily at each other before focusing back on Galloway.

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, it's gotten to the point where this outbreak just isn't cost-effective for them anymore, alright? Between that and the government breathing down their neck to get this outbreak sorted out with, they're resorting to the last resort."

That didn't sound good. "Don't tell me they're going to try another nuke," he muttered.

"Government won't trust them or the marines stationed here with another one after what happened in the last outbreak." Made sense. A nuclear bomb misfiring in the middle of the ocean tended to create trusting problems. Humans were always so skittish around those things. "So instead they're just going to carpet bomb the whole Red Zone with thermobaric missiles. I assume you know what those can do?"

Icy thoughts began to run through Corvin's head at the mere mention of those weapons. It was enough to make him grind his teeth in remembrance, the anger was so fresh. "I'm aware," he ground out.

"Great! Then you know what happens if they go through with it. I die, you die, Alex dies, James and his daughter dies, and everybody else in the city dies!" Galloway shouted. "So if we could maybe stop it with this passive-aggressive bullshit so we could actually get something accomplished, that would be swell."

The entire city, huh? He could imagine the entirety of the Red Zone set ablaze from those missiles, having seen them go off personally. He didn't think Galloway's jab at Alex dying in such a thing was too accurate, but everything else dying sounded about right. As it happened, he was in the Red Zone, so he was on that list. So were Jay and Robin in all likelihood. And Heller's daughter, who the man himself seemed to be invested in if the way his head perked up at her mention said anything. So he knew she was alive and looking for her.

Still, this was a big problem. A very deadly problem that needed solving pronto. "Do you happen to know where the weapons are?" Corvin slowly asked.

"Both the helicopters loaded with the missiles and the supply depot for the weapons, actually. And both are in the Red Zone." Galloway's eyes started to dart between himself and Heller. "So..."

Heller seemed to pick up on her intention immediately. "Hell no. I'll do it myself. I'm not going anywhere near that freak unless I'm trying to kill him."

Corvin scoffed. "Galloway, we just met, so I don't trust you at all. And you gave a really bad first impression." He jerked his head at Heller. "Him, I really don't like," he continued, "but I recognize he's a capable individual that can get things done when he puts his mind to it, and as it happens, blindly destroying everything in his path is the brute's forte." He refused to do anything involving even the mere thought of... cooperating with Heller. Even if the city was at stake.

"The operation is literally in an hour," Galloway pressed.

... Well, as it happened, his friends were likely in the Red Zone. And for all he knew they would get caught in the explosions if they started early. And he didn't trust Heller to save them if they got in danger.

Sighing, he tried meeting Heller's gaze. He turned his head in an instant. Good to know he was reluctant, too, but he didn't seem completely against the idea. Even somebody like him could realize that two heads were better than one. And his daughter was at risk in all this, too. More hands would deal with all of this sooner.

Corvin heaved a deep sigh. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he sat by and done nothing. Too risky. Which only left him with one very, very horrifying option. "Please tell me those helicopters are somewhere close by."

He imagined his day going a lot of ways. This wasn't one of them. In fact, he never imagined a day like this would ever come. There were some points where he imagined the rule about him not being able to dream were magically taken away and he was stuck inside of one.

No matter how many times he blinked, though, he always opened his eyes to Heller's back.

He had to resist groaning out loud every single time he faced Heller's back, and that strange, twisted tribal symbol emblazoned on the back of that leather jacket he wore. It even pulsed red at regular intervals. It looked neat enough, and even made Corvin consider making something like that for himself before he realized that a glowing symbol on somebody's back was an obvious sign of them not being human. He'd stick with the "wings" stained on the back of his hoodie.

He could barely believe this was happening. Them cooperating in probably the loosest fashion Corvin had ever witnessed. They hadn't said a word since they left Galloway in the streets. It was just Heller jumping from roof to roof with Corvin following closely behind him. It suited him just fine. He doubted anything good would come out of any conversation. Besides, he was going to die right after this was over.

He'd played around with that idea a bit, sure. Heller was strong, as much as Corvin was loath to admit. Probably stronger than last he'd seen him, actually. But based on the words Galloway said, he was after his own daughter. Which was a problem, because so was Corvin. Which meant that, once again, Heller was standing in his way. And if he couldn't convince Heller to lay off the Whitelight, convincing him to abandon his daughter would be nigh impossible.

With that all in mind, the choice was simple. He had to kill Heller. But this whole "liquidating the city" business took precedence over that and everything else for the sake of self-reservation and preservation of everything in the Red Zone.

Heller finally stopped jumping and stopped on one roof. Corvin landed behind him, saw he was staring off at something, and followed his gaze. It was directed at a Blackwatch base right next to the water separating Manhattan from the rest of New York. At the back of the base were rows of landing docks, and on each dock was a single helicopter. Corvin felt himself bristling when he saw the all-too-familiar missiles attached to their undersides.

"There they are. Lined up like fuckin' dominoes," Heller commented.

Corvin crossed his arms and grunted. The soldiers around the base were moving around more than he usually saw soldiers move. They must have been getting ready.

"What, no snappy comeback?" He stumbled forwards when Heller pushed on his shoulder. "Woulda thought you'd come up with about fifty jabs at this point."

"Heller, I'm really in no mood for banter," Corvin grumbled. "So stop talking to me and focus on the task at hand."

"Ooh, big bad over here don't like working with the belligerent brick-head, that it?" Heller asked. "You seemed a lot more talkative when you were trying to cut my face off."

Corvin felt his eyes narrowing, along with his frustration growing. "For your information, my silence has nothing to do with you." He turned around and stared at Heller straight in the eyes. "I've lost a lot of people I cared deeply about in a short span of time. I've been made privy to a lot of unpleasant information. I'm still processing it all, so I would appreciate it if you would just shut up."

Heller actually looked taken back by that. Corvin had no idea why. It wasn't like he put any malice into that stare or anything like that; if anything, he figured his gaze would be more tired than anything. He didn't care to dwell on it, though, so he turned his back to Heller and focused on the helicopters.

"... What happened?" Corvin didn't move an inch when he heard Heller's hesitant question. He didn't even bother to turn his head when he responded.

"None of your business," he said. "If you're really that interested, you can try to kill and and pull the memories out of my head when we start killing each other after this. You'll get quite the interesting story for your troubles." He held up a hand before Heller could respond. "Don't try to deny you were considering fighting me once we took care of this. We both would rather get this over with, so I'm just saying what's on our mind."

There was a moment of silence between the two before Heller spoke. "Corvin, you overheard what Galloway said about my little girl, so I'm not going to pretend otherwise. She's alive. And I don't know what the hell you think you're getting out of all this, but I'm only interested in getting my daughter," he said. "That's it. She's all I care about at this point, not you or whatever drama you're going through at the moment. We really don't have to turn things violent."

"... That's too bad," Corvin muttered, a bit of surprise laden in his voice. He never would have though he of all people would be the one to discourage violence. As long as Corvin knew him, Heller was always a violent person. His feelings for his daughter must have been sincere for him to go that far out of his character. It really was unfortunate that Alex wanted her so bad.

"And why's that?" Heller questioned.

"I'll tell you after this if I feel like it," Corvin said. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go steal one of those helicopters and blow up that base along with the rest of them."

"You're going to use one of those things against them?"

"It's tactically sound to use weapons of mass destruction that the enemy happened to have left lying around," Corvin reasoned. "And I need the catharsis of blowing them all up with that specific weapon. Do whatever you want; go to the thermobaric depot, maybe. I don't care."

He stepped off of the roof and casually fell to the ground on his feet. A beat didn't pass before he set off in a dead sprint towards the nearest helicopter. He jumped right through the front window, planted himself in the seat, and flew his hands over the control console all before the soldiers around him even realized what was happening. And once they did realize and begin firing at him, he was already rising the helicopter into the air.

Corvin's eyes glanced down at the targeting computer right next to his hand, and he saw that the reticule was over the other helicopters parked on the docks. His thumb didn't hesitate in slamming down on the firing button. Moments later, he saw the same bright flash of light encompassing his vision he had grown accustomed to whenever these weapons were fired, followed by the secondary inferno. It was enough to trigger the missiles on the helicopter he fired at, causing them to explode. That explosion carried over to the helicopter next to it, causing the entire line of helicopters to be chained together in the explosion. They were all gone at the press of a button.

"Good riddance," Corvin thought to himself. He hadn't been lying when he said he needed the catharsis of destroying those things, though it wasn't as satisfying as he would have thought it would be. He didn't really feel much of anything in that instance. He didn't think too hard on that, and instead rotated the helicopter so that it faced the base the little soldiers down below were scrambling around.

Maybe he just wasn't trying hard enough to earn that catharsis.

It wasn't like it was the first time James had ever seen an entire city block destroyed after a stockade of high-explosive weapons was detonated. It was the second time, actually. And he always told himself that the first time it happened would always be the last time.

New York had a funny way of destroying his expectations on a daily basis.

He let out an exhausted huff at the destruction below him. It wasn't like there was much damage to the buildings themselves, outside of all the shattered windows. Any small structures, vehicles, and anything down there alive or dead were all but obliterated, though. He was really glad he had shot at that thing with a tank from a distance, and then jumped out to the highest building possible to escape the blast.

So. Thermobaric crisis solved, as long as those helicopters were destroyed. James had a feeling they were, if the explosions he had heard on his way away from Corvin meant anything. Kid had issues, but James really didn't care at all about him as long as he stood out of his way. As far as he was concerned all he had to do now was turn around and leave so he could finally find his daughter. So he did that.

And then he had to dodge a falling helicopter. Which he did, of course, by jumping over it. It rolled off of the top of the building he was standing on and fell down to the ground below while James landed in a roll onto his own feet. And when he looked up, he saw Corvin looking down at him from atop a water tower on the other side of the roof, with his hands in his pockets.

Disappointment and anger. That was a new feeling for him to feel at the same time. Even after what he said, the kid still wanted to try and kill him, was that it? Fine. He warned him.

"Alex wants to use your daughter to create a self-sustaining creature that can house the consciousness of the entire human population." James had begun stomping towards Corvin, but then abruptly stopped when those words came out of the kid's mouth. Words that sounded so absurd to James that he couldn't help but to stop just to listen to Corvin. "That's why I can't let you live, James Heller. We're all after the same thing."

"What the actual fuck?" That was the only response he could come up with in response to that statement Corvin had just made. The very, very crazy statement he only believed because Corvin sounded so serious about it. "He wants to... he wants to do what with my daughter?"

"She carries your DNA, which has been proven to be more resilient that the majority of the human populace. She's the only one we know of that could survive such a process. That's why she's so important. Blackwatch probably only wants her because of what your DNA did to the Blacklight virus, so maybe they hope to replicate the effects. I don't really know." His face twisted into what could only be described as a grimace. "Alex thinks that doing this will make a world devoid of suffering and hurt since only one being would exist, eliminating any other individual to cause suffering. He may be right, to be honest. But the conjoining of all minds comes at the price of individuality, which is something I just cannot have." He shook his head. "I don't approve of the solution at all. It's not what I want."

"So why are you telling me all of this?" James asked. He was still reeling from disbelief over what he heard, but after everything he'd seen in this city, it didn't come as a complete shocker. A big surprise, sure, but not one big enough to freeze him on the spot. "You finally see that the guy is crazy, so you turned traitor on him? You're trying to stop him from doing this batshit insane plan of his?"

James actually did find himself freezing in shock when Corvin shook his head. "On the contrary, I fully intend on helping him," he said. "I just find it unfortunate this is the solution Alex came to. I don't really blame him, though. Fixing the world is no easy task, and he's working with what he's got. It's part of why all of this is a huge shame."

"So if you don't agree with his plan on 'fixing the world'," James growled, his teeth beginning to grind together as black and red tendrils roiled around his hands, "then why the hell are you still helping him?"

"Because I want to find my own solution on how to fix the world. On how to make one where everybody can be happy in a way I see fit. Alex's solution, while not ideal, is a solution. I merely wish to observe the results of his solution and collect as much data as I can to help in the construction of my own solution. Insight and just maybe some inspiration." He casually tilted his head in though, as if he was talking about as something as bland as the weather. That only served to make James more angry. "I guess you could say it's sort of like an experiment of mine."

And those were the words that started to tip James over the edge. The way he said all of that alone, so blandly and concise with no hesitation at all. Like the lives of literally every single human didn't matter to him. "Let me get this straight..." he ground out. "You're after my daughter, just so you can let Mercer twist her into some monster... you want to sacrifice the entire human race to that monster wearing human skin... just so you can see what happens?"

"Yes."

And those were the words that tipped him over the edge. Rage like he had never known before began to overtake him as his vision began to turn red. He barely even registered his own body pushed off the ground just so it could lunch itself directly at Corvin. He barely paid any attention to the face his hands were enlarging and hardening into the bludgeoning tools he had been using to rip tanks apart. All he cared about was tearing apart the person that was threatening his daughter.

Corvin's hand slowly drew itself from his pocket as Heller's body streaked towards him, like an angry red comet. He didn't blame the man in the slightest for reacting this way. If anything, Corvin probably would have done the same thing were he in his shoes. He could see from Heller's point of view why he would hate Corvin so much after saying what he said- after all, it wouldn't make much sense to him that Corvin was trying to find a way to make a happy world while at the same time trying to conjoin the entire human race. And there was the whole daughter thing, too. But he'd come too far to be brought down by a desperate father who came by all this power just because he happened to have good genes and determination. He was pretty determined and powerful enough, too. Enough that he was going to cut Heller right in half once he was stopped mid-flight by the shield Corvin had just made.

It was a good plan. A simple, solid plan, really. Right up until Heller's Hammerfist smashed right through Corvin's shield and collided dead-center with his face. He didn't even have enough time to think surprised thoughts before his body was sent flying back uncontrollably.

His vision became incomprehensible as he tumbled through the air and then buildings, and his hearing was filled with nothing but the sound of things being destroyed as he crashed through them. He finally landed flat on his back with a loud grunt, barely even registering that he was laying in a newly formed crater. The first thing he was able to see once his vision stopped swimming was the face he could see clearly through three whole buildings, his body having made a whole straight through them. Then second thing was a screaming James Heller descending right down on him.

Eyes widening, Corvin pushed his body out of the crater just as Heller crashed down where he had been laying. It had been done with enough force that Corvin found his body blown back from the force alone, though he managed to find purchase on a stable piece of sidewalk. And then his body was flung back once more when Heller punched him in the chest.

Growling, Corvin shot his hand downwards right through the concrete, stopping his momentum enough that he could safely stand on his feet. When the third punch came, Corvin managed to avoid it by dodging the blow and kicking Heller right in the neck. It did absolutely nothing but cause Heller to slowly turn his head around the outstretched leg to affix Corvin with a furious gaze. And then he punched him again.

"This isn't good." Corvin rolled his body and skid across the ground on the soles of his feet, a sense of alarm starting to run through him as Heller slowly started to approach him. "The last time we fought, we were on par in terms of raw strength. I made more abilities, though, and I was prepared. But that was days ago." His hands formed into claws as he slowly started to step away from Heller. "How strong did he get between then and now?"

"Not lookin' so big now, are ya?" Heller mocked, though the pace at which he was approaching Corvin didn't decrease in the slightest. The anger he was radiating, however, was only increasing. "I'm going to show you just what happens when you make me this mad, Corvin."

Normally Corvin would have verbally thrown something back at Heller, but after getting tossed around three time like that, he didn't think any words he used would have much weight. Nor did he think Heller would actually care to hear anything he had to say. So his only response to Heller provocation was to raise his claws at the ready and stop his retreat.

He just hoped the growing sense of dread in him was only his nerves getting to him.

He wouldn't do it, no matter how much he got nagged. Nope. Wasn't happening. He hadn't given up the search yet, and refused to be put down by a fifteen-year-old.

"Jay, you don't know how to get out of New York, do you?"

"I know exactly how to get us out of New York," Jay said. "I'm just, ya know... I'm figuring it out."

"It's been two days and we haven't made any progress."

He didn't care if it took two years, he was finding a way out of this place. He wasn't gonna let Corvin be right when he said they weren't going to be able to find a way out of here. And he sure as well wasn't going to let Robin get hurt by more of Corvin and Alex's world-changing shenanigans, or by Blackwatch and whatever amoral schemes they cooked up next, or whatever else in this city wanted to hurt them. They were leaving.

Unfortunately, he had no idea how that was going to work. All bridges leading out of New York had apparently been blown up a few days prior. Air traffic was still monitored. And of course, there wasn't a single boat. So there was no way out of the city by land, air, or water. But he wasn't one to be deterred by something like impassable barriers. He was Jay Morrow, somebody who never gave up at a dead end.

"This is so stupid..." Robin mumbled. She hadn't been the least bit enthused ever since he took her away from the clocktower. Actually, she hadn't said a single word to him for a full day after they left It didn't take a genius to figure out she was very against leaving Corvin behind like they did. Jay could understand how she was feeling, but he did what he had to do.

"Hey, look, I know this isn't ideal, alright? But we're getting out of here."

"Yeah, because your last idea worked out so well, didn't it."

Jay's eyes flicked over to the nearby Blackwatch base. So his idea to sneak into a group of soldiers shipping out of New York hadn't worked out that well since they had viral scanners right next to every helicopter shipping soldiers out, and if they so much as flashed yellow the entire place was put on lockdown. In his defense, it had been a good idea at the time.

"Can't you just go back to Corvin and say you're sorry?" Robin asked.

"That would be lying. Also, no."

"But-"

"He killed our friends, Robin. I don't have anything to be sorry about other than ever meeting that guy. We shoulda just left him in that dumpster to bleed to death."

Smack!

He didn't expect a slap of all things. Then again, he didn't expect her to really make any kind of movement whatsoever based on how she had been doing the last couple of days. He didn't expect her to glare so angrily at him, either. He'd never even seen her angry before.

"Don't talk about Corvin like that," she hissed. "He didn't kill any of them."

"Oh, really?" Jay challenged, his hand idly rubbing at his cheek. "You were there when I said all those things to him. He even agreed with everything I said."

"Then he's being as much of an idiot as you are," she said. "You know that he loved our friends as much as we did. The last thing Corvin would ever want is to have him killed."

"And yet look at what he did," Jay snapped. "All he had to do was stop, Robin. All he had to do was drop everything he was doing and just wait it out with the rest of us. He didn't have to do the things he did, and look what it wound up doing to our friends."

"You're talking like he killed them with his own hands!" Robin screamed. "He didn't! It was everybody else that's been hurting us since the start of the outbreak that killed them!"

"That doesn't excuse-!" Jay was cut off from his words when the ground under him shook for the briefest of moments, though it was enough to cause his feet to stumble. "What the...?" he muttered to himself, only to feel the ground shake again. "The heck is going on?"

He looked down at Robin, who seemed to have her eyes affixed to something. Jay turned his head and traced her line of sight to exactly what she was looking at, which happened to be the center of attention for many other Blackwatch soldiers. It was one of those mobile Blacknet servers they used, like the one he'd messed with that one time. Though he'd never seen soldiers actually crowd around the thing before. He could tell why when he actually focused his vision to look at the screen.

It was live footage, likely from a helicopter camera based on the view. And he could very clearly see why the ground had been shaking earlier- entire buildings being leveled would do that. He was more concerned with the fact it was two human-shaped and sized figures that were doing the destruction, though. He didn't recognize one, but the other one was very, very recognizable. It was Corvin.

And whatever fight he was in right now, he wasn't winning.

He was for sure definitely trying, but whoever he was fighting was just pummeling him into the ground, figuratively and literally. And he was rushing at Corvin so fast that Jay could see that he had no time to make any defensive moves, let alone offensive. Like he was purposefully outpacing Corvin just so he couldn't make a move against him. Usually for somebody like him, that wasn't a problem. But Jay didn't think Corvin ever had to fight somebody like that before based on how poorly he was doing. Hell, he'd barely been able to do anything against him.

"Is that... Corvin...?" Robin asked, her voice shaking.

"... Yeah," Jay confirmed. "Looks like he's fightin' somebody."

"He isn't winning."

"No. He isn't." He didn't know how much biomass Corvin had. A lot, if he kept getting up from being smashed through buildings. So far the damage he'd seen caused had just been blunt force trauma, and that was exceedingly easier to heal than cuts and lost limbs. It was more about moving broken things back into shape then growing entirely new things, though it still took energy to do. But getting blown through buildings wasn't exactly conducive to health, so even that would have its limits. And it seemed like every hit he got in against the stranger was returned with ten crushing blows.

He was going to die at this rate if he didn't come up with something or try to get out of there.

Jay felt something in him stop. Corvin? Dying? Those weren't really words that registered that well with him. Corvin didn't... he wasn't somebody that just died. Sure, he'd threatened to kill the guy himself back when he pinned him to a building, but that was when he'd managed to kick him around like he was nothing. And there had been a million thoughts running through his head at the time, too, so he hadn't really thought about it much.

He huffed. He didn't care. Not after what Corvin had done.

"Jay?" He felt Robin tug on the leg of her pants. "We're... we're going to go help him, right?" Her tugging grew more rapid when Jay didn't respond. "We can just follow the sounds of the fighting, right? When can just go right now and save him, right?"

He found himself scoffing. "Why would I help him after everything he's done?" he asked her. "Besides, he's getting creamed by that guy. I'm not letting you anywhere near him."

"But you're strong," Robin reasoned. "You could... couldn't you go help him and-"

"No." He couldn't understand why she didn't get why he wasn't going to go at all. But she didn't look the least bit deterred by what he was saying, not in the least. That was the frustrating part: she didn't see it from his point of view. Or maybe she did, but just didn't care. Either way, it was pretty infuriating.

He turned his back to her. He wasn't going to get wrapped up into any more of Corvin's nonsense no matter what she said to him.

"... When we were all dying, and none of us could do a single thing to save ourselves, who came to save us? To give us back the parts of ourselves that we lost?" Robin quietly asked.

Jay flinched. "Robin..." he warned, turning around halfway to meet her with one eye.

"Who was helped us no matter what was wrong? Who always made sure we had a smile on our faces no matter what the problem was?"

"Where was he when Hawke and Washi needed him?" Jay muttered.

"Where were we?"

He felt a chord being struck inside of him when she said that. She had a really good point there, didn't she?

"We were all together when my brother was taken. None of us could have seen that happening, even if us searching for that man was the cause for it all," Robin continued. "While Corvin and Washi were back fighting those helicopters, we just ran. Maybe if we had stayed and helped, we could have made a difference. Maybe not. I don't really know."

Jay fully turned around to face her. "But Alex-"

"We don't even know if he ever gave Corvin a choice to say no to him or not," Robin said. "For all we know he was threatening us and Corvin was just doing all of this to protect us. Did you ever think about that, Jay?"

"He sure didn't make it sound like that when he was going on his whole 'change the world tirade'." If he was being honest with himself, he was losing trust in his own words and starting to believe Robin's more. Because believe it or not, she made some good points.

Corvin being forced into all of this wasn't something he'd considered for even a moment, mainly due to the fact that he never said it like it was that. And why wouldn't he? They would have helped if he had said something! Instead of them always sitting around calm and thinking everything would be okay while Corvin was dealing with Alex, they could have worried themselves over and... put... themselves at risk trying to help him...

Oh.

"Goddammit, Corvin..." Jay angrily sighed. No, that was exactly something Corvin would do for their sake. He'd never let them know their lives were in mortal danger if he did the bidding of a complete psychopath just to make sure they would stay safe. And even if he did get enthralled or whatever happened to him somewhere down the line to where he was willing to do it all, well... there was nothing saying that underlying threat was still there. And he probably knew all that. And he still hand't said anything.

Damn idiots... all of them.

He looked back at the screen showing Corvin getting pummeled over and over again by that man. That had been the same person that Jay had pegged for never being able to smile when they had first met. The same person that had found ways of making them all smile at times. Actually one of the best friends he had ever made, if he was being honest. And what did he do for Corvin? Leave him behind to watch Washi die? Beat him up and blame everybody's deaths on him when if fact it probably wasn't his fault? Or maybe it was? He didn't have a clue anymore.

He had enough of a clue to realize he wasn't okay with him dying, though.

Robin had never felt more relieved when Jay had suddenly dashed away from her and jumped out of sight towards the sounds of fighting in the distance. She didn't have much hope that her words would reach Jay, but it turns out that what she had said was enough. It was for the briefest of moments, but she saw that certain gleam of desperation in his eyes before he had taken off.

She raised her hand and touched her cheek. She knew Jay was wrong about Corvin from the moment he had started spouting off all of those accusations at Corvin. Somebody kind like him who had always been there to help them could never willingly hurt them. Somebody who had even lent her a shoulder to cry on, and had shielded her body back when they had been human from that shoulder. He'd gotten hurt so much that day just to make sure she wouldn't be touched, and that action had done nothing but warm her heart, along with everything else he had ever done for her. It was so similar to the feeling she got from her brother that it was hard to tell the two apart sometimes. And when Hawke had died, it felt like Corvin had stepped in to fill that void. That's why she hoped Jay would be able to save him. She couldn't handle losing another big brother.

She turned around and began walking. She didn't want to stay around this place much longer. A teenage girl standing alone in the middle of the streets in the Red Zone looked out of place, and her friends had always told her to stay out of sight because of it. She'd hide nearby until the sounds of fighting were over and then go to see the two of them. Maybe then they could all finally get along like they used to.

"Oops!" She heard this exclamation be shouted out by a man who she had bumped into. Which was really strange, because she hadn't noticed anybody behind her. "Hey, sorry about that."

Robin closed her eyes and rubbed the top of her head. "I-it's fine, I wasn't looking where-"

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Robin cried out in pain when she felt the weight of her legs suddenly disappear from her body, causing her to crash down in a bloody mess on the ground. She was only able to prop herself up with her arms to gain enough leverage to slowly look up at what had just happened, though she shrunk back down when the man she had bumped into crouched at her level, and then pointed the smoking automatic shotgun right at her face.

"Hey there. My name's Starr. We should talk."

It wasn't looking good in the slightest for Corvin. He didn't expect Heller to be this strong. Not strong enough to overpower him and begin tossing him around like a ragdoll. Not fast enough that he was attacking Corvin faster than he could think of something to do. And pretty soon his blood started getting splattered everywhere while Heller kept beating down on him. Now he was a panting mess barely able to stand who could do nothing but watch as Heller slowly walked towards him.

He was really glad he could barely feel any of this, otherwise he'd probably be immobile from the pain. He probably wasn't going to be feeling much of anything pretty soon, though, no matter how much he wanted to deny something like that.

"I'm too beaten to run away. I'm too weak to fight back. And I'm in no shape to come up with some trick to get out of this situation." That familiar, dreadful feeling was beginning to wash over him again. The same one he'd felt when he thought those helicopters were going to blow him up. "I guess... that's it for me, then..."

He wanted desperately out of this situation, but there just wasn't anything he could do. He tried his best to beat him, but it wasn't enough to beat Heller. How much had he been doing in the last couple of days to get this strong? How many creatures had he consumed? How much had his body Evolved? How did he get so far as to surpass what Alex had given Corvin? It didn't really matter. The coming results were the same whether or not he knew the answer. Part of him felt that he should have prepared beforehand, but he had a feeling any trick Corvin could pull in the time he had before fighting Heller wouldn't have worked. The man was simply too strong.

Heller pushed off of the ground and dashed right towards Corvin, blade at the ready.

"Sorry, guys..." Memories of all of friends, new and old ones, began to flash through his mind. "I don't think I'm going to able to make it back home after all."

CLANG!

Corvin had closed his eyes in preparation of the oncoming blow, but that sound followed by an intact face wasn't something he expected. Nor was the sight of Heller being pushed back to his original spot something he anticipated.

"Jeez-jeez-jeez-jeez! I leave ya alone for two days, and look what happens." Corvin's head snapped so fast to the source of the voice that, if he were human, that neck would have snapped. To his utter shock and disbelief, Jay was standing right next to Corvin, his right hand turned into a blade that was positioned protectively in front of Corvin. "I thought you were cooler than this."

"... I thought you said that you were going to kill me the next time you saw me," Corvin whispered, not knowing what else to say in this situation. Jay's response was to roll his eyes.

"Yeah, that was kind of a heat-of-the-moment thing, you know?"

Corvin blinked. "I see." He sounded very convincing back at the clocktower, but if Jay said so, then Corvin would believe him. "So does that mean you-"

"Don't get me wrong. I'm still pissed at you for everything you did," Jay interrupted. "But Robin talked some sense into me, so... look, we're going to have a really long conversation after this so I can get some facts straight, okay?"

"... Okay." That was more than fair for Corvin. He was just glad his friend came back to help him.

"So," Jay said, his focus shifting to Heller, "who's that?"

Frowning, Corvin looked over at the man, who was slowly looking between him and Jay. "That's James Heller," Corvin answered.

"That a fact?" Jay mused. "So he's the guy we had to run around everywhere to find? A search that lead to Hawke's death?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Got it." Jay moved his blade and pointed it at Heller. "Well, he doesn't look that tough. Let's get him."

Corvin did a double-take between Heller and James. "What?"

"Well, I mean, if I could beat you up and this guy can beat you up, that means we're basically the same in power, right?" Jay asked. "So with you backing me up, this fight's in the bag. We got this."

Corvin began to feel his head drop in shame at Jay's words. "Jay, I was holding back in that fight. In fact, I wasn't even fighting you at all."

Jay froze. "Eh?"

"W-well, I didn't want to hurt you, so I didn't really... try at all to fight back to be completely honest..." Corvin nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I'm actually way stronger than you."

"... Oh. Shit." A look of understanding began to take over Jay. "Then... I guess we only got one option, huh? You're too beat up to move, and I don't got a chance against him."

"There's actually an option here?" Corvin mumbled, falling to his knee. He was barely able to even regenerate he was so damaged.

Jay nodded. "Yeah. You're not gonna like it, though. In fact, you're probably never going to forgive me for doing this." He closed his eyes and exhaled, and for a brief moment a cloud of light-blue, glowing vapor began to flow from his body before it was abruptly cut off. He then opened his eyes. "We got some time 'til they get here, so lemme just get a couple words out before we part ways."

It was Corvin's turn to freeze. "What?" he asked, his voice going dry. He didn't like the way Jay said that. He didn't like the way Jay said that at all.

"Corvin, you, uh... shit, I don't know what to say," Jay muttered. "You... were a pretty great friend, you know. You botched it up near the end there, but, well, you never actually told us all the facts now, did you?" He let a dry laugh out. "It's fine. I didn't really have much going on for me or my life anyways besides you guys, and since we're almost all dead, well... that kinda kills that motivation to keep going on. And you still need to get back to your friends, yeah?" He looked down at Corvin and bored straight into his eyes. What shocked Corvin was how tranquil Jay looked. Almost like he was at peace with something he just decided. "So do me one last solid and make it back to your friends alive, okay? Otherwise this'll all have been for nothing. And take Robin with you, too. You're going to be the last thing in the world that girl has, and she deserves better."

"Why are you saying things like that?" Corvin asked, his voice starting to rise in pitch. "Jay, what are you saying? Jay!?"

Something thumped down behind them. When Corvin turned his head to look, he nearly fell back onto his stomach in shock. It was one of those big infected with the claws. A Brawler. Only it didn't look like it wanted to maim Corvin where he was laying. In fact, it was looking at him in an almost subdued manner. And its eyes, normally bloodshot and glowing orange, as clear and glowing a light-blue color. The same as Jay's.

"Yeah. I've had the ability to control these things for awhile," Jay explained. "A situation never came up for me to use it until now, though. Sorry for keeping that a secret." He focused on the Brawler. "Take him as far away from here as possible."

"What are you doing?" Corvin started to panic when the beast lunged forwards and took his right arm into its maw. "Jay, what are you doing!? Stop it!"

"Sorry, Corvin. This is all I got. We can either both fight Heller and die, or I can do this." And then he did something that caused a stabbing pain in Corvin's heart. He tilted his head at Corvin, closed his eyes, and gave the same heartwarming smile he would always give to cheer him and their friends up. "Oh, and it looks like I won't be able to get that date with Kat you promised. She sounded like such a nice girl, too. Ah, what can you do?"

"Jay, don't you dare! Stop it right now! Please!" The sound of Corvin's fists weakly impacting the Brawler's face as he tried to pry his leg free from its mouth were drowned out by the pleas he was screaming at Jay. "I can figure something out, just get this thing to drop me! Don't do this!"

Jay turned his head away from Corvin and snapped his fingers. The beast holding Corvin wasted no time in turning around and running in the opposite direction of Jay and Heller, carrying Corvin along with it. The only thing Corvin could her was him screaming Jay's name as loud as he could over and over as his body was dragged away.

The second he couldn't hear Corvin's voice screaming his own name anymore, the smile fell away from Jay's face. "You have no idea how exhausting it's been keeping that on all the time," he told James, who stared at Jay in a perturbed manner. "I only did it for my friends' sake, since it always made them happy. Guess I don't need a smile anymore, huh?"

"Why are you doing this?" James asked, a prominent scowl on his face. "You're actually going to try and keep me busy while that thing carries him away?"

"Well, technically that thing has already carried him far enough. Brawler's are fast as fuck," Jay stated. He wasn't even kidding when he said that. Those things could bound up entire buildings without a sweat. "But the more time I can give Corvin, the better." He shrugged. "As for why I'm doing this... eh, I already said it to Corvin. 'Sides, I just met you. That's some real personal shit to just start airing out of nowhere, you know?"

Heller said nothing in response. Instead he just dug his feet into the ground as he prepared himself to lunge at Jay, with his large blade slowly scraping against the ground.

Jay readied his own blade. "Hey, just so I can say I tried everything, would you be willing to let me go?"

"Right now Corvin's the second person I want to kill the most. If you're his friend trying to stop me, that means you're probably just as bad as him," James said. "So no. Unless you get out my way right now so I can go kill that fucker, I'm not gonna stop."

Jay sighed. He wasn't banking on diplomacy working, but it would have been nice for it to have worked. "Well, that sucks. At least I did try everything. Okay. Let's g-"

Slash!

The first thing Jay noticed was that James Heller went from being twenty feet away to being right in front of him, his blade held out to the side. Then he saw the blood gushing out of his mouth. Third thing he noticed was his own blade, completely shattered. And then more blood in addition to what was coming out of his mouth, which was really considering his entire upper half was falling down towards the ground.

"Ow... that's pretty embarrassing," Jay thought to himself as he slowly fell. "What the hell. The guy broke my blade and cut me in half so fast I couldn't even react. Guess I made the right choice getting Corvin outta here, huh..."

Weird experience, being cut in half. He honesty expected a lot more pain, but then again he hadn't felt any real physical pain in ages. Another thing he had to thank Blacklight for, he supposed. He would have thought the experience of him dying would at least make him more frazzled in the mind, but oddly enough he was calm. It wasn't hard to see why. He'd consigned himself to this fate the moment he realized him sacrificing himself for Corvin's sake was the only one one of them would get away alive. And he hadn't lied when he said he didn't see much of a reason to live anymore. Corvin was mature enough to live with it and had those other friends waiting for him. Robin had Corvin to depend on, maybe get a new family out of Corvin's friends. Besides, it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it.

Everything was moving so slow, too. Gravity should have made him hit the ground long ago, but he was still spinning in the air as he slowly descended. He couldn't imagine why that was the case. Maybe it was that "life flashing before your eyes" thing he'd heard so much about, though he was hoping to see actual memories of his life than just a slow-motion viewing of his impending doom. It would have been nice to see his big sister again.

His vision slowly started to pan towards where he had seen Corvin get dragged away too. Nothing but empty streets and buildings, but he could almost see Corvin from the memory alone. "Corvin... you're not a bad person. You just made some bad choices, though I don't even know if it was your fault or not," Jay thought to himself. Blood started to obscure his vision as he continued to fall. "I wish you had never found that vial, you know. Even when we were all nothing but a bunch of cripples living in an old guy's clinic, yo were always happy around us. And seeing that made me happy, too. Then you got all serious once we turned into these things... and you stopped smiling all the time. I had to pick the slack up because of you, ya jerk.

"But... I think I can see why you did all of this, regardless if you had a choice or not. You just wanted to make us all happy; at least, that's what you kept saying. You chose a really roundabout way of doing it though, huh? Heh... man, what a mess.

"I just... I just hope you make it back to your old friends, Corvin. To them and your sister. Maybe you'll even smile again like you did back then." Oh, there were the visions. He actually saw them: Washi, and Hawke and Robin, Corvin, and even Bradley. Them before all of this, in the clinic. And they were all smiling, too. It reminded him of the time he didn't have to fake his smiles around them. Back when they had all been genuinely happy. "Just don't make the same mistakes with them that you made with us, Corvin. And try not to forget about us, either."

He started to feel his body break down as tendrils from Heller's body swarmed over him and burrowed into his cells. All his senses started to click off one by one as he was slowly assimilated. It wsn't long until he felt nothing but his own consumption at the hands of James Heller.

"Oh... so that's what that feels like..."

And with those final thoughts, Jay Morrow was no more.

He did nothing but frantically beat at the Brawler's head as it carried him block after block in a vain effort of trying to free himself. He wasn't going to let Jay kill himself just to save him. He wouldn't allow it. He wasn't going to let one of his best friends die just for his sake!

The Brawler suddenly stopped in its tracks and flopped lifelessly to the ground. Corvin rolled along with the beast nonstop until they ran out of momentum. Corvin's first action was to rip his own arm out of the creature's mouth, and to his growing worry there was no resistance. His heart fully sank when he saw the lifeless look in its eyes. Eyes that had glowed in Jay's signature color as proof that this creature was under his control. Those eyes were cold and lifeless, now. Nothing but dead meat.

Almost like whatever had been controlling it had been suddenly snuffed out

Red tears began to flow down Corvin's face when the full weight of the knowledge hit him in an instant.

"Jay..."