Chapter 70, everybody! FINALLY, we're at the end! Thank you so much for sticking with us, and we hope you enjoy this final chapter—which was written before the past several chapters I had how it was going to end in my head for SO LONG, you guys, and now it's finally here. TvT/

Anyway, we hope you all enjoyed this fic and…this is it! Good night! :D

Don't Starve © 2013 Klei Entertainment

Portal © 2007 Valve

She got up early, slipping out of bed and letting him sleep until she had breakfast ready. She had to help him out of bed and down the stairs—he still hadn't recovered from his stint of being in charge, predicted that he wouldn't for a painfully long time.

But they had time now.

He'd sit on the porch, smiling as he watched her run around the wheat fields with the great shaggy dog they had found, the one she named Chester and that he extended to Otto Von Chesterfield, Esq.—it was stupid, but it made her giggle. She'd pester him to join in, to get up and at least try, and after a while she succeeded, getting him on small walks, even if it did result in him falling asleep in his recliner afterwards. Sometimes she'd haul him up to bed, other time she'd let him lay there; the latter times she'd sit in front of the fire and watch it burn, getting lost in its flickering light, only distracted from it when she heard him jerk awake, would turn to see him gripping the armrests and glancing around like he was lost—

"Wilson."

She'd always snap him out of whatever terror-soaked fugue he woke up in, would wave off his attempt at an apology and drag him up to bed with the statement that doesn't look comfortable there. Usually she wasn't tired then, but she didn't like leaving him alone. The times she had done so had seen him waking up in a panic, and he was always cold anymore, even with all the blankets.

So she'd stay awake some nights, staring out across the wheat fields in the direction they had fled from, still not sure they had run far enough. He had said that he thought they had travelled far enough that the facility was no longer beneath their feet, and she hoped so—the idea that it was still down there, that she was basically walking on its roof, made her feel icky. But they couldn't travel farther, not right now, not while he was still recovering.

But they were fine for now. Nothing was following them, the house they stumbled upon was all right, and none of the horrible things that those in the facility seemed convinced existed had shown up. She might have heard the baying of hounds one night, but nothing had come of it.

They'd be fine for now. They'd survive. The important thing was, they were together.

The important thing was, they were free.


He stood there, watching their faces. Happy in their hyper-sleep, at least.

It would take a long time in the human vault before they'd be well enough to wake again. In the meantime, they had their dreams.

He supposed it was the least he could do.

Her face—her face that was so much like how hers had been….

And now, thanks to them, the facility was truly his.

Maxwell sighed, stepped back, looked from hers to his….Well, he had a better reason for not liking him now. Not even remotely good enough for my daughter. His lips quirked up at that thought.

And then just as quickly pulled back down as he looked back at her.

This…this is what this lifestyle had taken from him. He had missed everything. And then when she came back into his life, he had tried to kill her. Repeatedly.

Letting them go would have been the better option, probably. Granted, he would have died right away, and she would have shortly afterwards, seeing as how the world was up there now….

And now that he remembered, now that he knew….

It was completely nonsensical. Any hope there had been for normalcy had been completely and absolutely crushed. She would always view him as the evil king of the place she hated, and he'd have to live with that. And, seeing as how he couldn't leave now….

He was stuck here—he had been hooked up to the facility for too long, as his little walkabout had demonstrated. He literally and completely couldn't function as a human being anymore. There might be hope for the yutz—he hadn't been hooked up as long. But Maxwell…he had been there for years, and his nonexistent body temperature could attest to the fact that it was no longer blood running through his veins.

But at least the yutz had dug out the human vault. At least there was a chance, a slim chance….

He walked away, newfound freedom of movement lampshaded by the cables still hooked to him—he guided them now, not vice versa, but he was still doomed to forever need them.

Maybe he could find Charlie one day. She had been put in a relaxation chamber…maybe there was hope.

And maybe by the time he found her, he could tell her just how sorry he was.

About everything.

Finis

Total page count: 236 pages

Total word count: 74,520 words