Chapter 3 - To Fight For

Disclaimer: The wonderful characters that are in The Last of Us do not belong to me. I do not own anything that you would recognize. Instead, they belong to their talented owners.

Prompt: Write a story where the main character has to make a decision about letting his or her loved one die.
Summary: Never having a say in it, Joel lost every single person that he ever cared for. That is, except for Ellie.
Warning: The discussion of death (although very minor), a quick scene of violence - which causes serious harm (happens later), quite a few curse words, as well as major spoilers for the game.

Hey! Hey! Look at this! A third chapter! This soon? Better believe it!

I want to keep this short, so I'm only going to say one or two things more. First off, I know that this was originally planned to be a two-shot, but it was cut into three parts due to word length. And let's face it, when I write something, it almost never ends up like the original anyways. That is a good thing, in case some of you were wondering. ;)

Anyways, unfortunately, this will be the last part! And lemme tell you, the ride was wonderful! I enjoyed it, how about you? Since I want to get a move on, and I'm sure some of you will agree - for those who actually do read these Author's Notes - I'm going to let you go now. I hope that you enjoy the last installment and I'll see you at the end one last time, 'Kay?

And like always, happy reading, friends!

Just as a recap:

Just before reaching the elevator, a soldier appears on his left; sprinting towards him with his arm outstretched, gun raised. "This is your last chance." He shouts, and reloads in the beat of silence. All means of negotiating were out the window. "Drop her now!" He shoots, having noticed that Joel was not listening to any of their warnings.

And misses.

Joel stumbles into the elevator, barely able to maintain his strong hold on the unconscious child that was in his arms. Huffing for air, he leaned forward and, with his free hand, pressed the button that was meant for the parking lot. He takes a step back, waiting for the soft ding that would sound. His palms grow sweaty as precious seconds pass, and the soldiers get closer. "C'mon, c'mon." He rushes, looking from the panel of buttons to the quickly filling-hallway.

"Hey! Stop!" One soldier yells, but their orders are simply ignored as the high-pitched ding resounds in the small cube.

He leans up against the far back wall of the elevator as the doors slide shut. But he does not entirely calm down until the muffled groan of the machine's gears are heard, signifying that they were moving down and away from those soldiers. "Oh god." Joel breathes, closing his eyes to rest while he can; to calm himself. To be prepared.

Just in case.

He then steps forward as the soft chime for the bottom floor is heard. He looks up for reference, and the red symbols P2 stare unblinking back at him; letting him know with one, last ding that this was their stop. The doors slide open with faint swoosh of metal, but before stepping out, he presses the large, red, emergency button; locking the elevator in place. "Okay, c'mon, c'mon," Joel takes a calming breath and walks out, a parked car in his sights-

Only to come face-to-face with Marlene. "You can't save her."

Joel's eyes narrow as he stares back at her; someone who he thought that he could consider a distant friend, if not, then an ally. But the gun that she clearly pointed at him proves differently. Marlene is no longer someone who he can look to for help.

'She's just like them,' Joel tells himself, turning his body so that Ellie was, at least, mostly hidden. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second as memories from an event that had happened years ago come flooding back. He remembers it well. How he had told her, Sarah, that they were going to be okay, they were going to be fine.

But they did not end up that way, like he planned. At least, not all of them. Out of the three people, only two came back walking and breathing. The third...

Joel looks Marlene straight in the eyes, her words going in one ear and out the other. His heart began to hammer erratically in his chest, the illusion that she was that Soldier from all those nights ago mixing together, until, after a moment, she was. And yet, she was not. Still, it did not make a difference. Someone was standing in between him and someone he cared.

His fingers twitched. She was going to take Ellie away from him. Just like Sarah, and tears came to his eyes as the memory slowly, painfully, came to an end; they were going to take her. They were going to snuff out the light. His reason, why he had made it this far.

He frowned, 'Not again.' And a shot went off.

"We're almost there."

As they shuffle through the thick foliage, Joel, every once in a while, looks over his shoulder. To make sure that she is still following him, still there with him. When he turns around to calculate how much further they have to travel, he is inwardly surprised; only a few more feet until the structure came within their eyesight.

Knowing that she would not be the one to talk first, Joel decided to break the ice. "Don't think I ever told you, but Sarah and I used to take hikes like this." He glances behind him, finding her gaze was directed at her feet. Not at him. "I think ah.." he paused, still sore. "I think the two of you would've been good friends. Think you really would'a liked her. I know she would'a liked you." He admits.

Climbing over a rather large, fallen tree, Ellie then sighs, "yeah." How was she supposed to tell him? Her gaze fell, once again, to look at the tops of her black and white-Vanz as she followed. She wanted to tell him, really she did. But the question was how?

"Wow. Look down there." Joel whistled.

Ellie opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly hushed as Joel came to a stop a few, short jogs ahead of her. Her eyes widen a fraction as she looks down at the beautiful, and pretty amazing, view of the Hydroelectric Power Plant. How the machines hummed with pride, each individual gear glad to be up and running once more; filtering the water before dumping it back out, ending up with electricity to-

It was until then that it hit her. The building! It was full of electricity! And she offered a faint smile.

"Just a little bit further now." Joel informed her, being mindful of his feet and where he put them as they walked along the edge of a waterfall as it roared; its mist hitting them in the face. He jumped, pulling himself up and over another fallen log to reach the other side of the cliff; in order to get to Tommy's. "Here, I got you." And he grabs her hand, to steady her as she climbs up.

Joel gestures to the side and moves to walk, "Alright. Let's go." That is, until Ellie asks him to wait. He watches as her shoulders slump as she lets out a heavy sigh. Her hands fall back to her sides, twitching wildly with nervousness.

Until she stops, suddenly, and faces him, unsure written on her features. "Back in Boston- Back when I was bitten-" She pauses, studying his faces as Joel shifts his weight to one side. "I wasn't alone." Ellie does not blink, not wanting to lose her cool. "My best friend was there. And she got bit too." Her voice is soft as she finds a way to explain, and she shakes her head. "We didn't know what to do. So.."

Joel, however, was confused. Why was she telling him this? Why now? His eyebrows furrow together as he waits for the stubborn teenager, someone who he had thought that he would never get along with, to continue.

Ellie stares off to the side, reminiscing in memories that were almost as old as her. "She says, "Let's just wait it out. Y'know, we can be all poetic just lose our minds together"." And then she snaps back into focus. Ellie looks up at him for answers to questions that she was not sure of. "I'm still waiting for my turn."

Crossing his arms, Joel takes a breath, "Ellie-" but she cuts him off.

"Her name was Riley and she was the first to die." She spills to him, the second person that she had admitted to. And her eyes start to fill with tears as she willingly - although, rather she would have preferred to not to - remembers how her friend had died. "And then it was Tess, and then Sam." Ellie brought up, not caring if Joel yelled at her for disobeying one of his earlier rules.

She just did not care. She wanted to know.

Joel shakes his head. "None of that is on you." He tells her, unsure whether if Ellie would actually listen this time around.

"No," she disagrees. "You don't understand." She was the reason why each one of her friends died. Riley, they had hung around outside, watching the stars when one of those things had sneaked up. Riley had died be protecting her. And then it was Tess, who had ended up being bitten by one of them when she had protected her. Finally, Sam joined the party - People-Who-Die-By-Protecting-Ellie.

Joel was wrong - it was all on her. If only she had been stronger, smarter, faster. Maybe then she would have been able to do something about it. And since she was, in simple words, a magnet for trouble, why did Joel want to keep her around? Why - that was the silent question that her eyes asked.

And so, Joel answered the best he could. Although, he was not one to be gentle. "I struggled a long with survivin'." He responded, unknowingly reaching down to caress the twenty-year-old watch that was wrapped around his wrist. "And you-" His face softened as he went silent for just a moment. "No matter what, you keep finding something to fight for." And by the end, his tone is hard, but, yet, in a way, mixed with awe. How could someone so young be able to accomplish that?

Ellie lets go of the breath that she had been holding, turning her head away from the man that she was entrusted into. Still, she listens as he hurriedly tells her, "Now, I know that's not what you want to hear right now, but it's-"

For a second time, she cuts him off. "Swear to me." They share a stretch of silence before she orders him again, "Swear to me that everything that you said about the Fireflies is true." She stares at him, waiting.

Not wasting a beat, Joel answers, "I swear."

Maybe Joel had just lied to her. About what he had said in the car; how the Fireflies had stopped looking for a cure, and there were dozens of people like her that were immune. Or maybe he was not lying. Maybe he was telling the truth. She did not know.

"Okay," Ellie said and looked down, a bit unsure.

But there was one thing that she did know, as well as Joel.

No longer were they just companions, two friends forced to go on a journey that was pretty much as long as the United States was from coast to coast. Over the year, they had grown close, Joel and Ellie. And in a way, Joel had started to view Ellie as part of his family; no matter how small it was. Now, and he cringed inwardly, Ellie would never be Sarah or even close to his daughter. But that was okay.

Because, just like Sarah had been; he had something to keep waking up to every morning, now. He had something to look forward to and fuss over, worry about every day. Just like his precious daughter had been to him, Joel had found a reason. And that was her.

Ellie was his reason to keep fighting for.

A/N: How was that? Did you like it?

Now, before I go, I want to thank everyone who either followed or added this story to your favorites, or possibly even both. I want to give you guys a big hug as a thank you for enjoying it! I really do appreciate it, all the views! (: Cookie for you! (: :)

Until next time, ¡Adiós!