A/N: I've had this idea of SPD having a split on the mutant powers for a while now. I wrote this in one hour sitting on a staircase. Don't judge. (I posted it on AO3 too, and has several links. Check it out too)
"Why are we fighting, Tate?" Her voice was oddly quiet, as she stood in front of him, the rifle in her hand felt heavier than it usually did. Heavier than when she had to aim it at Bridge's heart, or Jack had to, at Syd's forehead…
"Because the world is spiralling into hell, Delgado" came his hollow reply. He was just as broken as she was, and that was what held him back from punching the knife through her gut, as he had with Jack, only a few hours ago.
Or at least, that's what he was telling himself. Hs heart wouldn't let him admit that a part of him was still in love with her.
"We aren't getting out alive, you know it"
"I do" he closed his eyes, wishing the world hadn't gone to hell the way it had… they had been so happy, so so so happy… The crossroad where they were standing on right now? Unbelievable…
A year ago, he would've never even imagined that he'd actually stand on top of the Golden Gate Bridge as dead bodies fell into San Francisco Bay, while the city was on fire. And that also, with his saber aimed at the woman he had once loved.
So much had changed in their lives, and they themselves had changed so much…
"You shouldn't have betrayed us…" he said, soberly.
"I never betrayed anyone." Her reply came just as sharply, "I just never thought you would all be so… blind."
Blind? He had been blind? Had Syd and Bridge had been blind? Those freaks were a hazard to society as they knew it.
"You all HAD A CHANCE. You could've gone through the surgery too, you could've been fixed too!"
"Fixed?" She repeated, unfeeling, "I was never something to be fixed! Sky I was fine the way I was, I never NEEDED to be fixed!"
His face was twisted into an expression of extreme grief, "You revolted… You joined the rebellion, the people who SPD was trying to take down, you betrayed us all… You killed Syd and Bridge! That's Murder, Z. Rebellion and treason can still be forgiven… Murder can't."
"Wasn't what you did to Jack murder?" Z asked, her eyes filled with hurt and pain, knowing the man she had ever counted to have her back was gone, and gone because of the man she had once loved.
"You shot Kat Manx through the chest" Sky said, soberly, that had been her first crime… Well of course, as the world burnt, nothing even classified as 'crime' anymore. Cruger had gone wild after Kat was killed, and had ordered for all rebels to be ghosted.
In other words, murdered.
The rebels did not stop at killing either. Jack and Z joined the rebellion, Sky, Syd and Bridge stuck with SPD. They were on opposite sides of WAR, and they all probably knew none of them would make it.
"Anyone who creates a way for people to forcibly not be themselves has no right to live" her voice was filled with anger. He remembered the time when Kat Manx had, in a feeling of guilt of having created this entire gene deviation of mutations, had devised a way of reversing the gene mutations, a way to re-do the gene sequences, so simply erase the quirks…
Z had not taken it well.
"You are not someone who has the power to decide who deserves to live, and who doesn't"
"You are not someone who has the power to decide who needs to be fixed, either"
"We were born freaks… you used to hate that as much as I did, so why did you join them?! We could've been normal!"
"I never HATED what I was! People called me a freak! I hated THEM, I hated you when you called me a freak! I've never been ashamed of what I was, you have, and I never wanted to change myself, I wanted to change those people, their mindsets, what they thought about us. Not myself. I never wanted to change myself, Sky, and I guess you never understood me."
"I—" he knew she was speaking the truth. Sky had always wanted to be normal, so normal, that he had forgotten what his force field had ever meant to him, and he hadn't missed it till it was... gone.
It had been painfully the same with Z...
"You know I'm right." She said, staring him n the eye, as he tried to avoid her gaze.
"This... I was insecure... I've always been..."
"And you lost everything in this insecurity... if you, Bridge and Syd would've stuck with us, we wouldn't have lost... they would all be alive."
"When I promise my loyalty, it's for life." He still had a bit of denial left in him.
"How did you convince Bridge and Syd?" Z asked, noting from the corner of her eye, the fact that someone had just set the Golden Gate on fire. if they didn't leave soon...
"I didn't have to." He said, she knew he was lying. Syd she could believe, could be bought by the ruse of being turned perfect. And Bridge?
"He was going insane. His powers were taking over him, and he didn't have a lot of time. We did it for him."
"Is that the lie you've been telling yourself?" He knew she had seen completely through him. He had nothing.
"A liar looking for forgiveness, from a stone"
He let his saber fall to the bridge's floor with a loud clang.
"How do you know what's worth fighting for? And what's worth dying for?" He asked, lifting his gaze, to meet hers. Finally.
He had given up his fight.
"You and I... were worth fighting for. This, is worth dying for" she looked straight at the inferno heading their way. He followed her eyes, and realised what she meant.
"This... this is worth fighting for. You and me? We're worth dying for." He stated, now looking at the fire in her eyes.
"Am I really as fixable as I had thought?" He asked, softly, to know how sincere she was being in the moments before her death. Neither of them moved a step, the distance of two feet separating them, as they stared at each other.
"I loved you before... I never wanted to fix you... you're just as broken as me" she smiled, but there was something dismal in her eyes. Something he had never seen before.
He was silent.
Something inside him had died... They were in ruins of a city where they had once been in love, and they couldn't ever get a re-do, another try.
"You and I" she said, her voice echoing the sound of her losing everything.
Her rifle hit the floor with a louder sound, as she gave up her fight.
"You and I" He smiled his last smile
Her hands were wrapped around his neck, her lips with his instantly, as he hungrily pushed back, his lips parting, tongue pushing past her clenched teeth to the space within. The heat rose in her cheeks as her tongue touched his, quick and electric, then firmer, more determined, more curious about the heat that lay within, seeking to chase down that elusive liquid lightning that reached through both of them.
They stayed locked in a tight embrace, not letting go, not letting a single moment be wasted… it was the last moments of their lives. They had given up their fight, they knew that neither of their sides cared for the loss of their lives. They were gonna be destroyed almost as certainly as the Golden Gate, and with all the hurt between the two of them, they knew each other was all they had to hold on to, and letting go wasn't something either of them were good at.
They parted from the kiss minutes later, in a serious dearth of oxygen, feeling the heat much closer, knowing the end was near, and staring dead straight into each other's eyes, neither spoke a word, but a conversation worth an entire lifetime passed between the two of them.
A last melancholy smile from both of them, was all that remained, before the two were engulfed by the inferno.
Still wrapped in each other's arms.
A/N: And yes, there is legit no way to describe their kiss and do it justice, so just watch the 21 Guns music vid and like... THAT'S THE KISS! Christian and Gloria are Sky and Z!
(Yes I know SPD isn't set in San Francisco, I just really love San Francisco XD deal with it)