Arthur kept smashing the chair against the window. Nothing was working. He screamed again. What a fool he was.

"Cinder!" he screamed in a futile effort. If he wasn't the one dying, he would have almost been impressed.

Watts felt his legs buckle as he fell to the ground. It was getting difficult to breathe and Atlas was crashing into Mantle any moment now.

How! How could I let my guard down? he thought. Shit. Shit. I can't die like this. Me? Of all people? Like some sort of lab rat clawing in desperation?

Arthur gasped for air. Death by asphyxiation. Time of death… he began thinking aimlessly. How did it end up like this? There was a certain macabre irony he saw in the fact he was going down with the very city he sought to destroy, but any of its humor was lost at the fact he was going to die.

Outsmarted by a brat….

That hurt him more than anything else. Dying in such a meaningless way was bad enough, but to lose in the end to Cinder of all people.

I can't just… die here…

His vision started to fade out. Consciousness begins to fade. After a while, brain function ceases. Death. He went over those simple, basic facts that he learned during his schooling.

He wondered if there was anything after? Was it just lights out? Everything he'd learned probably suggested that, but everything about Salem suggested something else.

Too late to worry about it now. Damn…

Watts felt the need to struggle more. To fight for his survival. Salem… I should have died for Salem!

Then he was launched into the air. Atlas had slammed into Mantle and the world shook. He crashed through the glass that he had been beating against moments before. He was cut up and bloodied by it, many shards embedding deep into him. There was so much more fire than he thought. He screamed in pain, the flames lapping at his flesh. Glass found itself in his left eye.He screamed in abject agony, blood mixing with tears.

I can't… I can't keep going.

But then that means death.

Salem. Am I not dying for Salem?

And what? You'll just be a flash in someone else's pan?

Arthur slowly crawled, trying to get away from the fire. He heard water. The city must have been flooding. If he wasn't underground it probably would have meant certain death.

As if his current condition was any better.

It hurts..

He was barely able to breath. The shattering of the glass gave him more oxygen but it was limited.

If you die, your genius dies with you. All that knowledge is gone.

Arthur clawed his way up, more glass getting stuck in his hands as he did so.

"I'll kill… Cinder. I won't die here!"

His genius, the ego he'd earned, could not disappear to someone so unworthy.

Slowly he began to limp away. Anywhere was better than the fiery coffin he was currently in. His mind went through any escape route. Anything he might have had.

The vault.

It suddenly hit him. If he could make it to the vault, the magic involved could protect him from the water.

Stumbling through the hallways, Watts mumbled to himself. "Why didn't… why didn't Salem come for me?"

He was groaning in pain, his blood dripping down his shredded body and into the pooling water. The sealed entryways made of metal and highly developed alloys were protecting him from a torrent of ice cold water for now. But there were already leaks. If he didn't make it, he'd drown.

Remember. Remember where the Vault is.

His memory was near photographic and from the time he spent at the main terminal, he had detailed the way to almost everywhere in Atlas. Including the vault, though such information wasn't so easily accessed.

Just a little further.

The door to the elevator was broken, malfunctioning due to the crash. Arthur mustered what little strength he had and began to pry open the broken door. Come on! I'm not dying here! Not yet!

Each time his body hit the metal, he wanted to cry in pain. It hurt so bad. But he wasn't going to just give up and die.

Above him, there was the sound of straining metal. That meant one thing. The flood.

Bursting from above, the metal that had protected his journey for so long gave way with a moan of failure. Soon water was rushing down hallways and from above. Panicking, Watts beat against the door with his body, screaming as he did so. It forced more glass into his body.

With one last effort the door gave way and Watts fell.

He hit cold, ice water that had begun filling the cavern. He was swept below the current, struggling as he did so. Air bubbles left him. Swim! I have to swim!Everything was so silent in the water. Peaceful in a way. A quiet calling to death.

He tried to orient himself. His one good eye looked for anything vault-like, since he didn't actually know what the place looked like. The only cameras had just monitored the elevator door.

There!

He channeled all he had left in him to swim towards the vault door before the rest of the cavern was flooded. Closer. Closer. Almost there.

He was beginning to fade. His stomach felt weak and he was nauseated. His body cried for rest, more just a moment, but Watts knew if he conceded he'd be dead.

Floating in the water was a familiar sight. Due Process. Arthur instinctively reached for it with his more damaged arm, leaving one left for swimming.

I won't die..Not until…Cinder Fall dies! By my hands!

Out of breath and at death's door, Arthur Watts emerged from the water into the warm grassland inside the Vault. No science could have ever produced it, but it was no science to begin with. Magic. Magic had saved him.

Gasping for air, he coughed up blood and water. He was shivering and still bleeding out. Due Process was in his hand and he pushed himself off the ground.

Looking up, with his last moments of conscious vision, he saw James. Arthur held up the gun to stop him, though it looked like he was trying to shut the door.

You're still my enemy… James…

He pulled the trigger and nothing happened.

Oh…

He started to laugh, mirthlessly and without any joy. Fate had deemed them survivors. Why it had to be the two of them once again was beyond him.

Stumbling backwards, he tossed the gun to his side and fell back onto the soft and warm grass.It felt good.

Just a bit….

Blood started pooling around him. He felt the door slam shut. I'll kill her… no matter what.

He heard James laughing too as he fell down.

I don't get what's so funny.

A/N: Wow two in a few days.

More to come.

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