Disclaimer: The Outsiders is © S.E.Hinton. I own Matt and Nate. Hahukum Konn owns Shawn, and I use him only with Hahukum's kind permission.

Okay, since this is the last chapter, I'm posting the reviews first.

Hahukum Konn- Sorry about that, he does eventually get down, as you will soon see. Thanks for being such an awesome beta, and allowing me to abuse your character! Thanks for all your help.

Locket the Lookout- Yeah, I do get that a lot ;) I tend to kill off my characters quite often, as Hahukum can tell you.

Aoki-Chan- Yes, poor Shawn. But he does get down eventually…. Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you finally managed to get off your roof after hanging xmas lights! And as for Nate being dead…. Read on, read on.

A/N: A final thank you to the faithful Hahukum Konn, who not only listens to me griping about not getting reviews, but actually reviews himself, as well as betas. He also actually wrote some of this chapter. Now you just can't ask for a better beta reader than that. THANKS!

Chapter Fifteen
The Final Fight

I ran to the DX, not knowing what to expect. Never before had I heard Steve like that. There was something strange about his voice; as best as I could tell it was a mixture of anger, confusion, and sadness. He was frantic, insisted that I get over there as fast as I could. So I ran.

……At the DX……

Police were everywhere, questioning people and writing on their notepads, telling people to get out of the way, and securing the perimeter, surrounding everything with their huge roll of yellow police tape.

I managed to slip through unnoticed though, and entered the main building of the DX, since most of the police were surrounding the garage. I had to find Soda, or Nate, or even Steve. I had to figure out what was going on.

"Matt," someone hissed. "In here."

I turned and saw Steve beckoning to me from the office.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused. "Why do you need me? If you've been robbed or something, I don't think I can… wait a second. Where the heck is Nate?"

Steve bowed his head.

"Uh uh," I said, shaking my head, disbelieving. "No way. Nothing happened to Nate. Nothing can hurt Nate…. Can it?" I asked.

He said nothing for a moment, until I glared at him and said, "WHAT HAPPENED TO NATE?"

Finally, he said, "He was workin' on a car…"

"I coulda figured that much out on my own!" I shouted. "After all, IT"S HIS JOB!"

"Kid, if you don't shut the hell up, you can just find out from the police!" he said, glaring at me.

"Fine," I muttered. "So what's going on!"

"It was the socials, man," he said. "He was under a car working, and those damn socs knocked the jacks from underneath the wheels. The whole damn car fell on him!" he screamed.

"You don't mean…."

"Yep," he said sadly. "He's gone. Such a good man, and he's gone."

He thrust a wadded up piece of paper into my hand. Once my shaking hands uncurled it, I took me several tries before I was able to comprehend its meaning.

"YOU'LL BE NEXT, GREASE!" it said. Instantly, I dropped it.

And I ran.

---------------

"Matt! What's the matter?" asked Ponyboy. He was sitting on the couch with a disgruntled looking Shawn.

"He's dead," I said, voice cracking.

"Who's dead?" they asked, alarmed, thinking that I was delirious or something.

"Nate's dead. It was the socs. The socs killed him." I still couldn't realize that the watch I had saved my allowance all year for that I was going to give Nate for Christmas would remained unopened, that I would never see my brother alive again. I handed Ponyboy the crumpled piece of paper. Ponyboy read it.

"Matt," he said. "Socs don't just go around killing. The beat us up, but they just don't KILL. The wanna make us suffer, not kill us. Matt, what's going on?. Do those socs have something against you? It's just not like them to do something like this. Matt, we can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong."

I sighed. It was finally time for me to tell the truth. "Well," I said, "you remember that I was a soc…." I told them everything, how it was my idea to go beat up the greasers, how that resulted in Bob's death, and eventually Johnny's and Dally's. By the end of it all, I was sobbing like crazy. But I felt a strange sense of relief, though I knew they were going to hate me.

What would they care if the socs killed me? I killed two of their own. They'd probably love to have me dead.

"Well," said Shawn, "if we're all going to confess… you remember Two-Bit saying I was from the future, and then me and Ponyboy kind of shrugged it off? Well… actually, it's the truth."

Was he joking? "Uh, Shawn… this is a joke, right? You're kiddin' me. 'Cuz if you ain't, this also ain't a good time to be foolin' around so soon after Nate's dead." I was starting to get mad now. Did they think that I was joking about Nate's death, that I was joking about being the soc that caused all of their problems?

"It's the honest truth, Matt. I'm tired of lying to everyone. I'm tired of having to watch what I say in case I screw something up. Ponyboy knows about it and he doesn't push me about it. But I gotta tell someone. You know the old saying 'a fish out of water?'"

"Yeah."

"Well, you're one, and so am I. I'm not from 1966. I'm from… well, let's just say several years ahead. My parents never lived on a farm in North Dakota. I'm not even an American. I'm a Canadian."

Holy jesusalmighty.

My brain just couldn't comprehend this. Even if he was for real, how could he prove it? And if he wasn't, well, he was nuttier than just about anybody I knew. I wasn't sure if I should call the loony bin or not.

"Yeah, you probably think I'm nuts or something, right? Believe me, I would too. But it was in March of this year that I somehow ended up in the lot near the Curtis house, and you know the rest. Here, see this?"

He held out a birth certificate.

"Dally got me that. Uh, that's Dallas Winston."

"I know who Dallas was."

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, that thing's completely fake. It's as queer as a three dollar bill. And that expression means something different in my time than this one."

Shawn continued. "Look, I dunno any other way to convince you, but… there it is. So, take it or leave it."

Oddly, he looked relieved. As though a burden had fallen off his shoulders. But I could see he still looked kind of scared, but of what I didn't know.

But I didn't seem to know what to believe any more.

"So," said Shawn. "What are we going to do about the socs?" he asked. "We can't just let the socs do this kinda stuff."

"Y'all don't hate me?" I asked, more confused than ever. "Ponyboy, I tried to kill you, you know I did. And Shawn, those socs beat you up near Thanksgiving 'cause of me. I wouldn't blame you if you tied me up and gave me to the socs."

"You're not like that anymore," said Ponyboy. "You've changed. "You are one of us now, and nothing can change that. As for what we're going to do," he said to Shawn, " I would think that'd be obvious.

"We're going to have a rumble to end all rumbles."

-----------Two Days Later, At the Lot----------

Even though I had only seen one other rumble, I could tell that to have one this big was a rarity. Not only had we managed to get the whole gang, but we also managed to get the Shepard gang and the Tiber Street Tigers, as well as about a dozen other greasers that really didn't belong to a gang, but that we had been able to convince to help us.

All the greasers were lined up on one side of the lot, waiting tensely for the socs to show up. Then, several Mustangs and Corvairs pulled up, and the socs, all boozed up and ready to fight. They all gathered on the other side of the vacant lot.

An uneasy silence spread throughout the lot as we all waited for someone to start the fight.

Then, suddenly, from the other side of the lot, one of the socs pulled a heater.

It wasn't pointed at me, but at Ponyboy.

It was then that I realized that the socs weren't going to give me the luxury of death. Instead, they were going to make my life a living hell. Until I had no one left.

It was as though everything was moving in slow motion. I saw the soc aim the gun directly at Ponyboy's chest. I saw the soc's finger tighten on the trigger, about to take the life of my best friend. Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. Without even thinking I dove in front of Ponyboy and heard the sickening POW as the bullet cut through the air. I let out a scream as I felt the lead bullet rip through the flesh in my shoulder, the sheer force of it twisting my body.

And I didn't regret a thing.

Omniscient POV

The socs ran, knowing that sooner or later, the police would be there, waiting. It was best to be out of the way.

Matt fell limply onto the ground. He felt the blood seeping out of the wound, pouring onto the ground.

Immediately, everyone was around him. He felt Darry lift him up and lay him in the bed of the truck, Ponyboy beside him. In an instant, they were speeding to the hospital.

"Why, Matt?" Ponyboy asked him shakily. "Why did ya do that for me?"

"I started it," said Matt, his voice barely more than a whisper, "and I had to finish it. Besides, there wasn't anything for me here. I have no one left. It was only a matter of time before some social service person found out about me and took me to some boys' home or something. But you. You have your brothers. Someday, you're gonna be able to get out of this place. But even if I didn't do it, there wouldn't be anything here for me. You'd be gone, and it'd be all my fault. It's better this way.

"And I'll get to see Nate again." Matt closed his eyes, and let out a final shuddering breath.

Ponyboy heard Darry swear as they were forced to stop for a red light.

"Don't bother," Pony said to him. "It's too late, Darry. He's gone."

-------------Epilogue----------

The whole gang was at Matt and Nate's house. The government was going to take back the house any day now, and so the gang were going through Matt and Nate's things, seeing if there was anything they could sell, or if there was anything they wanted to keep.

Ponyboy was rummaging through some of Matt's things. He remembered the day before, when they had buried him. They had done it alone, in the middle of the night, and laid him to rest next to Johnny, Dally, and Nate.

He remembered glancing at the tombstones of his friends and thinking, how lucky am I to have known these people?

He had been sad of course, but Matt had given his life for him. And he knew that someday, he would see him, as well as Johnny and Dally, again.

Ponyboy started to look through one of the shelves in Matt's room, examining the books. Soon, he found a blue book with no title.

He flipped through the pages and soon found it to be Matt's journal, and in it was recorded all of the events since Matt's parents had died, and ending just after Nate's death.

Ponyboy pocketed the journal. Once upon a time, he had told the story of Johnny and Dally.

Now, it was time for Matt's story to be told. And he would be the one to tell it.

- - - - -

I'd just like to thank everyone for reading a half-planned out story by a bored thirteen year old with nothing to do this summer. I was really surprised to find out that I would receive such great reviews, even though I was a first time author here. I've had an amazing time here, but now its done, my social experiment over. With the end of summer (yes, I do go back to school in like two weeks), comes the end of this story, so thanks again for reading, and please review. Remember, flames (if you didn't like that I killed Matt) are accepted as well as expected, and that little review button down there is your friend.

Bookworm

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