Please excuse this unbeta'd mess. In an effort to clear off some of the works in progress I have, I went back to what I had originally started on this chapter, and with some mixed feelings about where I thought I wanted to go with it. *Spoiler* warning for events through The Last Star.
The arrays sustain his life, he is enhanced.
The problem? So is she.
How sweet the sound.
Blowing up Camp Haven hadn't achieved the desired effect. Vosch was very much alive. The systems kicked to life stabilizing his physical response to the stress that was her, she was alive. His heart couldn't race, his lips didn't actually tingle, outwardly he gave no visible sign. And yet, somewhere in these seven billion billion molecules that made up the consciousness that was Evan Walker, all of this was real. His body hummed, she's alive.
With every breath she took, the idea of a world without her could not come to pass. He would not stand for it. He would not allow it.
I will find you.
The silencer needs to find her, before everlasting grace does.
It couldn't be much longer, every system was screaming failure. The gift has always been self serving, and nothing will stop him. In hindsight his grave mistake would. The gun was there, it was loaded, he didn't finish the job properly.
How hard was it? A bullet in the head- two. He corrected, one for the kill, and one for insurance. One could argue that the loss of blood, the jarring impact of the landing from his escape coupled with the knowledge of having failed to kill Vosch- had clouded his judgement. Maybe none of that, his only driving force being the gravity that had shifted his universe and had caused him to overlook those shots. Because the only thing that drove him was the idea, find Cassie.
And find her because the other is coming.
…
They are holed up in a run down Holiday Inn. He knows this because his senses know this. There are others with her, and that one boy- Ben Parish, of all the humans that could survive the apocalypse that his kind had delivered, it would that one?!
He'd watched the building, First the distrustful one left, followed by the small girl, and no-one- they hadn't noticed. This of course made things easier and more complicated. When Cassie figured it out, would she come out to look? Should he wait for her?
The ones that were left were the the shot-up old crush, the silent one, the one with the large ears, the brother, and the mayfly. Out of those, he only trusted her. But- did she, could she trust him?
She walked to him across the old flooring, in nearly the same room where he's failed to destroy grace. Grace was strange that way. Giving where it should have taking, and taking the only things that mattered- the only thing. Grace- salvation- sacrifice- redemption-
A boy crumpled in his arms. Another was knocked out too. A muzzle was pointed at him, systems had crashed…
He wouldn't stop, not until he was captured, or destroyed. That's why they'd sent her for him. After they'd convinced the ringer, after the ringer had no one left to fight for. But the mayfly had come, and they couldn't take that from him.
...
A bright flash of green startles the shell they call Evan Walker into a conscious state.
It turns out they could. It turns out they did. They erased him- and the mayfly erased herself.
Tired eyes search the sky, it's early. The position is wrong. He has miles to go before he can pay his respects again.
He no longer dreams, he no longer cares, he no longer has anything to live for- except, his body is sustained, and he- he's still not ready to let go of her. His features are hardened by living out in the wild, by feeling more than any human should feel. But, Evan Walker, persists. Haunted by the namesake of his fore-bearers, walker, he walks the earth now.
The journals weigh him down, he will never leave them. They carry the consciousness of the only thing he loved. At times those words cut deep, a throbbing ache that will not leave, she is with him as he walks her planet, silencing those who will not see reason.
He goes until he can go no longer, days and nights, because when he is conscious- he can shut the world out. Survive and exterminate. That is his only task.
He stops when she enters the night sky, he watches as she moves across and slowly disappears over the horizon. Time has stretched, the only exception is when she is present, and only then does time speed up.
It's been months since he left. Left her only known family. Left those who had been with her in her last moments on Earth. Left- her namesake. The child who is the quarter turn to the knife embedded deep in his being. Their knowing eyes that look upon his shell with pity, sincere in their shared pain, because he is not the only one she left behind.
The world was dying.
Instead of facing that fact head on, a select few in the world committed genocide though the most blatant of lies. Aliens exist, they've come to destroy us- no. No, only humans could be capable of the actions they put into place, a systematic, world ending, fuck you reset of the goddamned planet. Leaving only survivors, and children. Children, for fucks sake. And one lone girl on the cusp of womanhood who stood by defiantly and didn't let it happen.
Every closing of a silver loop is done in her name. He is alone. She left without him, because they hacked him, erased him, and set him to murder her. She killed him first.
He is enhanced.
He did not stay dead for long. As it turns out, humans lack that ability to take a final shot- two really, when the heart is involved and it has to be done face to face.
Ringer- no, Marika, tried to comfort him, telling him that he had been with her, when she met her end. His hacked consciousness, along with every single human consciousness- Cassie had taken them all. But left no drop for him.
The day is long, he accomplishes much- doesn't stay for long. He wanders, not exactly aimlessly, the thing that guides him is her. Cassie. Not for Cassandra, or Cassidy. No, Cassie, for Cassiopeia.
He silences everything that keeps him from following her across the night sky. He is no longer other or silencer. He remains enhanced, but not human. He has become a walker. The shell that is Evan Walker will continue to walk and silence the lies, until he can go no longer. He both fears and welcomes that time, because that is the only time he sees her. They are only memories, random bits of data that have been re-downloaded and stored, and apart from the journals they are all he has left of her here in this wasteland of a battlefield.
A/N: A special thank you to "Clumsy Pixie" nothing warms my heart more than reading "I don't normally review". I appreciate everyone's reviews and those of you who have PM capabilities I thank you in person. I watch to see who follows, and favorites the stories, it really does mean a lot to anyone who writes. So thank you. I believe I have reached the conclusion of the jumbled idea I had. I appreciate all of you who have been reading. And I will post a bonus chapter sometime in the future.