AN: Once again, sorry for the long wait. First week back at uni and I'm already feeling as if I didn't even have a vacation.

Thank you all so very much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts. I truly appreciate every one of them!

Spoilers for end of the game. I do not own Fable or the characters.

Chapter 37

"The Crawler has reached the coast, my Queen. We've already gotten report that it has attacked the Silverpines settlement." The lieutenant in front of her looked as if he was trying to maintain a steady front, but she could hear the tremble in his voice. "We should-"

He was cut off by the door bursting open. "It's here!" Ben panted, his eyes shining with thinly veiled fear. "It's in Bowerstone…The men…They're holding…But it won't be for much longer…We have to get out on the streets. Now!"

"This is it," Walter said, taking a deep, steeling breath. "Today we fight! For Albion!"

"For Albion!" the other's yelled in unison.

"Let us not waste more time. It's time for this thing to crawl back into the hole from which it came!" Annabelle grabbed her sword and headed to the door, Knight, Ben, Logan and Walter on her heels. You already lived this, she told herself. You've had the nightmares but you got through them. You need to be strong now.

What met her outside, however, put all of her nightmares to shame.

Despite it being mid-morning, it was almost completely dark. Crackling fires all around illuminated the sky and pools of darkness covered every possible surface. The Children had killed a lot of the soldiers and she could see the bodies of some civilians as well.

A surge of anger ran up her spine at the broken body of a young girl. It's time to end this!

She built up a storm of fire and flung it at the nearest group of emerging Children. The force of the attack incinerated almost all of them at once and she allowed herself a small smile. The Crawler wanted a fight, so it was going to get one.

They slowly made their way through the streets while the Crawler continued to roar in the background.

"The light you bring will die. The light inside you will die. All that you are will die!"

"You can never escape darkness, it flocks to you always!"

"You have done terrible things. Did you think I wouldn't know?...Did you think I would allow it?"

"Don't listen to it!" Walter yelled. "Don't let it get to you!" Annabelle could only guess that he was doing this to keep his own morale from dropping. She could see that Ben froze for a moment when the Crawler yelled about doing terrible things, but he quickly shook it off. When they had the tiniest pause to breathe, she shot him an encouraging smile, which he returned with a tight one of his own.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sound of screeching metal. Sure enough, when she turned around one of the giant golden statues that she'd faced in the cave was staring right at them. Before it could act, she lunged into the air and charged a flourish, plunging her blade straight into its chest.

When she landed neatly on the ground, everyone around her was staring at her.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You have…wings," Logan managed, actually looking confused for once.

"Great, bloody wings!" A genuine smirk spread over Ben's face. "Let's see that bloody blob try to stop us now!"

A smile spread over her own lips. "Right. Logan, Page, go to the market. See if there are any survivors. Ben, Walter, with me."

The deeper that they went into the city, the more illusions were thrown over their path. Strangely enough, the visions were growing more and more absurd, as if the Crawler was getting more desperate.

"Is it just me or is this thing getting scared?" Walter cried as he brought down another one of the children.

"I think it's almost over!" Ben called in reply.

Annabelle rushed through one of the archways only to find an empty courtyard. "This can't be right…The whole of Bowerstone is supposed to be overrun. What…?"

Walter came to a stop behind her. "Why isn't there anything here?"

"Annabelle! Walter! Behind you!" Ben cried. She turned around just in time to see the horrible face of the Crawler behind Walter.

"Look out!" Just as the words slipped past her lips, Walter faced the creature and his eyes went wide with fright. The Crawler's mouth tilted into an evil smirk before it forced itself down Walter's throat

Walter's eyes almost bulged out of his head and his jaw seemingly unhinged as he gagged against the monster's progress.

Annabelle could do nothing but stare in horror as Walter's face morphed into something very sinister. In the background, she could hear Ben yelling and pounding on the barrier that had formed in the archway.

"Walter?" she asked hesitantly and she took an involuntary step back.

Walter turned his dark gaze to her, an uncharacteristically sinister smirk splitting over his face. Without saying another word, Walter lunged towards her, his sword sweeping in a deadly arch.

She managed to get her sword up to block the blow just in time, but the force that he put behind it knocked her to the ground. He struck again and once again, she barely managed to stop the blade from connecting with her skin.

"Are you going to make this easy on me, Little Queen?" the voice of the Crawler said, its monstrous voice mingling with Walter's

She rolled to the side to dodge his next blow and sprung up to her feet, her sword at the ready. Yet, she still couldn't bring herself to attack Walter.

"Anna, help me! Strike me down!" Walter's cried suddenly, his voice and expression now back to normal.

Then his expression turned twisted again. "Wasn't I your father figure? Didn't I teach you everything you know?" the Crawler's voice mingled with Walter's hissed as Walter steadily advanced. His current fighting was so different from his usual, elegant style that she had to concentrate on not getting hit.

"Make it end, Anna!" Walter's voice cried again. "Help me!"

Despite every bit of apprehension she was feeling at the idea of attacking Walter, she somehow found the courage to strike at him.

"Don't fight back, my child. I have cared for you, I have taught you, I have made you!" Walter said, easily blocking her attack. She took a deep breath and struck again, knowing full well that if she didn't stop the Crawler here, Albion would be destroyed in its entirety.

Walter wouldn't want this, she told herself. Walter would have wanted me to fight him with everything I have!

It was easily the most difficult battle of her life and she had to keep all her wits about her to stop herself from being killed. All the while, the Crawler continued to mock and discourage her. Still, despite all of this, she knew that she had to help Walter. He didn't deserve this fate.

She was so filled with adrenaline that it wasn't until the Crawler gave one final, anguished cry and Walter fell to the ground that she realised the gravity of the situation. All at once, it was as if she couldn't feel anything anymore. It was exactly like her nightmare. Walter was lying on the cobbled ground, blood seeping through his usually immaculate clothes, his face deathly pale as he breathed heavily.

Her sword clattered to the ground as if her fingers were simply unable to hold on to it anymore. "Walter," she whispered, kneeling on the ground to cradle his head in her lap. "Walter, I'm so sorry."

"You took away the Darkness…It's been inside me all this time." The tiniest of smiles quirked at his lips. "But it's light now. I can see the sky…and it's light." He took a strangled breath. "I don't think I can fight anymore."

"You don't have to, Walter. It's all over…We won," she said, forcing a smile and at the same time tried to keep herself from crying. "We beat it together."

He coughed violently and drops of blood splattered over his doublet. "Do you...remember those stories I'd told you when you were…a child? There was a great king once…the mightiest hero of them all…Remember what you would say?"

She was unable to hold them back any longer and the tears were now freely streaming over her face, mixing with the rain that was steadily falling down. "Teach me to be a Hero," she choked out.

"I think…I managed, don't you?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head slightly so that she could see Ben kneeling next to her, his face equally anguished.

"You did wonderfully, Walter…The best teacher I could ever have," she whispered, biting back another sob.

Walter turned his unfocussed gaze to Ben. "I…I think two…years are a bit…too long…after all…you old bugger…"

"I think so too, Wally," Ben managed with a forced grin and his hand tightened on her shoulder.

"You've done me proud, Anna…You've always…done me proud…" he breathed, his eyes fluttering close one final time.

Silent tears continued to stream over her cheeks. "Oh, Walter…."

Annabelle held his body close to her as her tears increased in volume. He's dead…He's dead! Ben wrapped his arm around her quaking shoulders, but she was barely aware of his presence, just like she was unaware of the torrential downpour and the cheers of the people in the street as the darkness receded.

Nothing seemed to matter anymore. Not only hadn't she saved Walter, there were so many other lifeless bodies littering the street.

She'd failed.

"I'm sorry, Bells," Ben said after a long time of silence. "I'm so sorry…"

"He's gone…I killed him. I killed them," she muttered over and over and she allowed Ben to pull her into a tight embrace. She scarcely noticed Logan and the others approaching Walter's now still body and she couldn't care less if anyone saw her in that state. To hell with what the rest of Albion thought of the weeping queen.

I killed him…

oOoOoOo

"Do you still think about William?" Annabelle asked softly. It was a few days after the attack and they were standing on the balcony outside her room watching as the artists started to work on the block of marble that would eventually be a giant statue of Walter. In the distance, the clean-up of Bowerstone was well underway. The final death count hadn't been established yet, but it was at least in the tens of thousands.

Ben had an idea why she was asking and considered lying, but that would be even worse than telling her that he still blamed himself for his brother's death.

"Every day," Ben sighed and leaned on the banister. "I'm not wallowing, he'd hate that, but I can't forgive myself just yet."

She looked at the ground. "Does…Does it get much better? Or do you think you'll always feel angry at yourself for delivering the killing blow?" He could see that she was hurting immensely and wanted nothing more than to help her, but he didn't know how.

While taking a deep breath, he placed his hand over hers on the stone banister. "It gets better bit by bit. What I'm feeling now is nothing compared to what I felt months ago. I'll forgive myself eventually." He gave her hand an affectionate squeeze. "He'd want me to."

"What…what if I can't?"

There was no point in trying to act that the conversation was about William any longer.

"Then everything he left as his legacy…Everything he put into you was a waste. Walter poured every ounce of energy he had in making you the ruler and Hero that Albion needed, without it being necessary for him to help you…He wouldn't want you to blame yourself forever."

From the way that she was biting her lip, it was clear that she was trying to stop herself from crying and he pulled her close against him, stroking her hair. She hadn't cried in front of him since Walter's death, probably to make herself look strong, but it couldn't be healthy for her to keep everything bottled inside.

"If you want to cry, go ahead," he whispered. "I won't think any less of you, I promise."

She struggled for a moment more before she finally relinquished her hold on her emotions.

"I'm sorry," she whispered over and over and he couldn't discern if she was apologising to him, Walter or everyone else that she felt like she failed.

oOoOoOo

I rarely cry while playing videogames, but the ending of this game is so damn sad that I couldn't help myself. I hope I did it justice.

I know it's short, but I wanted to split this and the epilogue. I'll try to upload the epilogue tomorrow or Monday.

Please, tell me what you think!