The blood-red water lapped longingly at the shore, some cruel mockery of the sea that used to be there. If it was the ocean, if it was the dissolved bodies of everyone who had lived, he didn't know and he couldn't bring himself to care. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered if there was nothing left to matter, nothing but him.

Nothing but him and the hand that touched his arm, light as a breeze but with enough presence to send a jolt to his stomach. "What are you doing…? Put that down."

"I'll do what I want." It was only a twisted shard of metal, but maybe it would be enough. "Leave me alone."

"You were the one who decided to live." The voice was distant, cool. "Isn't this the world you wanted?"

"No!" His voice broke, hand shaking at his side, clinging to the one thing he had some measure of control over. "How could I have wanted this? How could anyone want this!"

"So you didn't get what you wanted, so now you're gonna cry and stab yourself in the face until it all goes away?" This body, his lone companion, swept a hand through long red hair and laughed contemptuously. "You're such a loser."

"I know I am. I always have been. That's why this is best."

Blank, emotionless eyes took stock of him. "Running away is best?"

"At least I'm doing something!" he protested. "Just laying here for the rest of eternity, until I die of starvation, isn't that more cowardly? I'm making a decision!"

"You wanna die?" The mix of anger and hurt was too much to handle, and he had to look away. "Dying is a choice! You're giving up on everything, just giving up? When you fought so hard to live? I don't understand you."

"There's no use in living in a place like this! Look around!" He waved a hand impotently. "That sea there, that's people! Do you see what the world's become? There's nothing left to live for!"

"You rejected the chance to be one with everyone you love. Is loneliness not what you wanted?"

"I wanted to be me! When we fell apart, there was no me, there was no anyone else, we were all one thing, and I… I couldn't be. That isn't what I wanted, who would want that!"

"Obviously, most of the world wanted that, can't you see it? Why do you think we're the only ones here? People saw that chance to be one with everything and took it, but… it just wasn't good enough for you, or us, was it?" There was defeat on the tired, lovely face. "Nothing ever is, even when it should be."

"But… isn't this right, isn't this what we're supposed to be?" He was pleading now. "Aren't we supposed to be our own people? We can't… we can't feel anything, or know anything, if there's no one else…"

"That is the choice we are given. You chose to take it. Perhaps, in time, others will too."

The sand was rough against his elbows as he sagged in defeat. "I… this isn't the world I wanted. I didn't want to be alone."

"Of course you didn't, stupid. We're here. You're not alone."

"But I don't even know who you are."

"You never did."

He wept helplessly, staring up into the crimson sky. This wasn't what he wanted. What was the point of working so hard, fighting so long, suffering so much, when all that came of it was this?

"You know, the commander pushed for what he wanted. He didn't sit back and cry… maybe that's why you two never got along."

"He didn't get what he wanted either." He didn't say it with a lot of certainty. Maybe he had… there was no way of knowing. He couldn't ask now. Not that he could have before.

"He's one with your mother now. Isn't that enough?"

"I could have been with Mother plenty of times," he snapped rebelliously. "I came back, because there were other people that needed me. He apparently doesn't have that courtesy, not that I'm surprised."

"Oh, that's rich. You, Mr. Oedipus, complaining because your daddy isn't here? You'd just snipe and bitch if he was."

"That's not true." He'd lost the piece of metal, and one hand scrabbled for it. "If Father had really ever… if he'd just said he was sorry, just once, for what he did to me, I… I'd try. I really would."

"Would you? Well… maybe there's hope for you two, then… or there would have been." She sounded a bit despondent. "Every kid needs a father…"

"I… I just wanted to have a chance." The sky was hazy through the film of tears. "I… I just wanted to have friends and go to school and be loved and love somebody back and have a decently normal life. That's all."

"But that was not the lot you were given."

"Well, that's not fair!"

"Tough chickens, if we always got- …do you hear that?"

He hadn't heard it, if only because there hadn't been a sound besides their breathing and the water for… forever, it seemed. But there was a distant rumbling, a low keening sound- something that screamed along his spine, something that just wasn't right-

The towering wall of red and sea foam gave him just enough time to lament his lack of control over his own death before it fell.