A/N: Finally! After nearly 3 years, I thought this thing would never end. (grins) I know, it seemed like it wouldn't.
I would like to dedicate this story to my grandparents who encouraged me to write. I miss you guys.
I want to thank everyone that has read and reviewed this, and the people who are determined to see this through all the way to the bitter end.

I would also like to thank my betas for helping me with the latter part of this story. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this- I definitely enjoyed writing it.

Anyway, if you want to see what happens next, keep a look out for the sequel 'Wisdom of War'. Thanks for reading - Yodes.

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Chapter fifty-five: Today's The Day I…

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Lydecker: This isn't a big a tragedy as you think it is.
Max: Whatever you have to tell yourself.
-Max and Lydecker (Hit A Sista Back)

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'I tried to kill the pain
But only brought more
I lay dying
And I'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
I'm dying, praying, bleeding and screaming
Am I too lost to be saved
Am I too lost?'
-Evanescence (Tourniquet)

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Erin looked around her as she paused outside of the parking garage. She wrapped her arms around herself and hunched her shoulders making her look like the child she had sometimes portrayed herself to be.

'Where to go?' she looked around her as the rain dripped down her skin, running over tattoos, washing away blood.

'Not here. Away. Can't stay.' Erin's mind was slowing down to it's normal pace, it confused her slightly, made her frown. She trudged towards the fence as her brain started working, started to form sentences, started to make her feel. By the time she had made it out into the surrounding city, her thoughts were killing her… mainly because everything she'd concluded about what had happened seemed to be all true.

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"Today's the day that I lost whatever it was that I had in this world. Friends, a pretty cool life… Alec. And, after everything, I'm still no closer to going home. Only now, I'm on my own in this world. What's worse is today's the day I became something I never thought I could be- I became a killer. I killed every single one of White's team- coldly, ruthlessly, and in a matter of minutes. It was like I was possessed, unable to stop myself from killing and enjoying the look of fear on their faces. My brain was working on levels I didn't know existed. I was there, sat there screaming, able to watch, listen and feel as another me talked, plotted, joked, acted and killed. Instincts I didn't know I had started working, saving my life and allowing me to kill easily. God, what the hell am I!"

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She'd made it past the fence undetected without even trying, moving at that impossible speed so the Ordinaries would just blink and miss it. She couldn't afford a run in with the Ordinaries outside. She didn't want to kill them as well.

It was several blocks before she slowed down in an empty street and walked liked a normal person.

Erin stopped and stared at her reflection in a shop window. Rain poured down heavily, her hair hung limply in front of her face and her clothes felt heavy and were sticking to her sweat soaked body. With her shades on, her pale face looked cold, distant, hard, yet oh so young. She hadn't felt young in a very long time. Her face was a lie. Erin began to walk again, no idea where it was that she was walking to.

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"My friends aren't my friends anymore. They fear me- I can tell, I could smell it. They no longer trust me, it wouldn't even be a stretch to say that they hate me. They'd have to join the club."

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On the 6th floor of the parking garage, Erin's friends sat close together, Max laid out on the couch, Jondy dealing with her wounds. They weren't talking. They just sat there staring at the fire. It was as if they had no words to describe how they felt. They were all in shock or some form of it. All they could see was death and their so-called friend behind it all. All they could see was her emotionless face, all they could hear were her taunting jokes.

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"Oh God, Alec! I saw his face. I'm sure whatever we had between us is over. What am I talking about! I've become a killer! Of course he wouldn't want to touch me now! I betrayed him the most. I didn't want to. It was one of the reasons why I tried not to get involved in the first place. Damn it! Why did he have to make me fall for him!"

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Alec sat on the roof of the parking garage, not caring that he was soaked to the bone. He stared sightlessly out over TC and no one would be able to tell if it were tears running down his cheeks or simply the rain. After all, soldiers don't cry. His knuckles were white as he gripped the wall, his shoulders were hunched and his head was down. In the stairwell doorway behind him, Joshua stood silently watching, a look of sorrow on his face that was enough for both of them.

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Erin looked up and saw the space needle looming above her in the dark; grey, cold, dead. Just like Erin felt. Slowly, she slipped inside and began walking up the many steps to the top, not ceasing until she reached the restaurant so high above the ground. Her legs weren't even tired. She made her way out onto the treacherous slippery roof, balancing easily on the metal.

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"I'm a killer. I'm poison. Everyone fears me. I meant to kill those people, I wanted to kill more. What scares me is how right it felt. Maybe White was right. Maybe I am some kind of predator… a monster."

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Erin looked down at her hands. The blood had been washed away but some remained underneath her fingernails. She let her hands drop to her sides and looked out through the rain to Seattle, not really seeing it.

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Back at TC, the bodies were being stripped of anything useful and then stacked, one on top of the other to be buried or burned later.

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"White was going on about power, destiny."

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Erin could still feel the bones breaking under her hands, blood soaking her clothes and skin. She could still smell their fear and see their terror. She looked up slowly at the grey sky before taking her shades off and slipping them into a pocket before closing her eyes and raising her face once again to the rain.

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"I don't believe in destiny, and if power means being a killer- I don't want it."

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Erin moved closer to the edge of the space needle. One more step would take her into oblivion.

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"I guess this is just the price I have to pay for being whatever it is I've become. I don't care though. I'm not going to become what White wants me to be. It ends here and it ends now. I'm not scared. I guess I can admit that I've been waiting for this moment for a long time now."

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"You can go to hell!" Erin yelled up at the sky and looked back down at the concrete so far below her. Just one step, just one little step.

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"Yeah, there's no point in going on when I've got nothing left to live for. I've got nothing left to lose- that much is certain."

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Erin gave the city one last look. It looked surreal through the rain. All shiny buildings with twinkling lights. If she had ever planned to see the city of Seattle, it wouldn't have been like this.

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"Today's the day I lost my friends and my life here. Today's the day I lost Alec and became a killer. Today's the day I lost all hope of ever going home. Today's the day I die…"

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Erin took that last step off of the space needle.

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Alec looked up as Joshua approached him. "Alec alright?"

Alec nodded once, his trademark grin back in place but fooling nobody, his eyes shuttered to the world. "I'm always alright."

He glanced back at the space needle as a bolt of lightening flashed across the sky. He could've sworn he'd seen something move, but when another flash of lightening lit up the sky again, there was nothing there, just the rain.

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Erin didn't see her life flash before her eyes as she fell. She didn't see the places she'd been and the people she'd met. She didn't see the faces of her family and friends; and she didn't say goodbye. All she saw was the sky and ground flipping end over end and all she felt was the wind and the rain battering her body. She must've left her stomach back at the top of the needle. It wasn't like there was going to be any need for it now.

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"C'mon Big Fella" Alec touched Joshua's arm, "Let's go inside. There's nothing to see out here now." He turned away from the wall and led the way back inside.

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When Erin hit the floor, she shouldn't have been surprised as the concrete cracked around her feet. She shouldn't have been surprised that she could stand up from the crouch that she had somehow landed in. She shouldn't have been surprised that she would live when she wanted to die.

She wasn't surprised.

She was pissed off.

"Bloody hell!" Erin yelled up at the sky, her scream being swallowed up by the rumbling and flashing of the dark.

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"I guess destiny wouldn't let me get away so easily…"

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A/N: How could I leave it like this? Am I really that evil? Well, duh! If I didn't end it like this, it would go into another chapter, and another one and another one, and, well, you get the picture : )

I'll catch you guys later - Yodes (collapses)