Ok once again, very late, but it's here! :D This was really hard to write, so sorry if it feels kind of off. The story is coming to an end soon…I think. I might write another fic after this one so don't worry, you guys can't get rid of me so fast. ;)

Disclaimer-I'm really bad at remembering to do this, but yeah, I own nothing and stuff.

DAY: Chapter 13

"I don't know how she did it but she did." Thomas had burst into my cell full of fury. His steps were fast and his breath faster, as though he'd been running. One button was missed on his coat, giving him a lopsided collar that annoyed me to no end. Or perhaps it was the fact that he'd been saying that same sentence since he got here ten minutes ago.

"Would you like to elaborate?" He looked up at me, paused in his traced steps and seemed to see me for the first time.

"I shouldn't tell you. It could hurt her if you-"He shook his head as though making a decision but I'd already made mine.

"If this has anything to do with June it involves me." The fear in my gut turned to anger in my glare. "I have to keep her safe when she can't do it herself. So tell me what happened already." My jaw ached from gritting my teeth so hard but I didn't care.

Thomas took a deep breath, seeming to collect himself. "I was in the armory today. My gun…from before, the one that was created to infect the victim with plague, I found it empty. It had been used."

"So you think I stole it or something? I can't even escape from this room let alone break into an armory." I spit the words as though they burned my lips. How stupid did he think I was? Thomas for the first time since I've known him looked sheepish. Before he spoke he double checked that the small black device he used to jam the recorders was on.

"The armory here isn't locked at all. In case of a serious emergency they deem it more important that we are all armed than if our prisoners happen to escape and even then, find the armory." I scoffed at the idea. To keep weapons out in the open like that was stupid, though it also meant that the security in this cell was considerable.

"So what does it matter if this gun of yours was empty? Someone used it?" Thomas' eyes feel out of focus at this, his mind elsewhere despite his now stilled feet.

"Yes, someone must have used it. Anyone could have, the door being open as it was. But I think that…" He cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. "June isn't getting any better. It's been five days, our time is almost up." My breath caught. My knuckles now white from the force of my fists. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't-

"Major Winston was positive that this cure would be effective almost immediately. But every time a dose is given nothing happens." A picture was forming in my mind. Things were coming together. I'm sure I was coming to the same conclusion that Thomas had so worryingly reached. I dare not interrupt though. "I think she may be sabotaging the treatment by exposing herself to more of the plague."

JUNE:

I could feel it. The snakes could feel it too. The boy that shone so brightly in my mind was close. He was coming. Those footsteps too loud they crashed through the floor but they flickered like flames past these walls.

I must warn him, I must tell him. He needed to know what would happen if only to spare him that blood red pain that he was sure to endure. The snakes whispered the words I would need to repeat, over and over, making sure I remembered. But also to make sure that I kept my courage. Light was beautiful but to throw one's self into a pit of flame needed courage. Judging by how much my hands were shaking, courage was something I lacked. No, no, no, no I needed to do this. If doing this made me brave then I would come out of this braver than before.

The statue of a man opened my door and let in the light. I held up my hands to shield my eyes but it did little to help. The boy called out to me. His hands all feathers and birds, flittering about my arms and shoulders until they made their nest at my ears. His hands cradling my face as though I were a child and he was a parent lulling me to sleep. But I could not sleep, I needed to tell him. I needed to let these words slip from between my lips and sew them into his skin so he never forgets.

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." I reached out. In my mind there was a shifting image, one of a boy with long golden hair. This must be him. He brought that same hummingbird feeling in my chest. Yet my fingers met smooth skin, marked with only the memory of hair. This for some reason tore at me.

The boy's hands were quick to wipe away wetness from my cheeks. But I had to give him the entire message. "Fight alongside Anden, it's the only way to save the Republic." I took a deep breath. My mind was slipping away from me. There was something else, something of grave importance. "Day, no matter what, keep your promise." My hands fished in my pockets. None of my body seemed to follow my orders but it wasn't too hard to find it. The statue that kept guard had given it to me. It seemed to sing now, shimmer and glow in my hand as I held it out to the boy I had called Day.

DAY:

The paper clip ring, she still had it. I almost broke then. After everything, everything I'd said and done she'd kept it. I didn't have the faintest idea how she'd gotten it past security but I didn't care. She was crying and I couldn't tell if it was from pain or the words she spoke. How could I even think for one moment that I could live without her, her wit and her quick thinking? Somehow, even now with her thoughts so muddled and twisted she remembered me. She made the effort to try to tell me what I already knew.

She was stronger than me, so much stronger. I stroked her hair and almost laughed at how she leaned into my palm. All along, ever since she'd realized there would be a cure, she'd known how this would end. It didn't matter how close I was because she wasn't going to get better, not ever.

She loved the Republic more than that. She loved me more than her own sanity. She was giving it all up.

"June, you don't have to do this. I'll get us out of here. Just give me a little more time." I hated how hoarse my voice was. Already my throat was starting to hurt from keeping emotion in. She gave a weak smile and shook her head, her hands now holding mine.

"The snakes said that this was the only way." Her dark eyes glazed at this and I wanted to scream. She was going to leave soon, drift away into that mind of hers that had helped her so often escape. Now it was nothing but a cage. I couldn't free her from something like this no matter how smart I thought I was.

"So you're just going to leave me…I can't keep my promise if you-"I choked on my own words and tried to swallow them down.

"Just help Anden. He'll come for you when they realize what's happened. The Republic is strong enough to win. Just don't die. They need the cure."

"Then get better June, wait for Anden with me. You don't have to keep doing this to yourself." My thumb grazed the spot where she'd injected herself.

"You and I both know that anger is sometimes the best weapon. Give them a reason to fight. Tell them that June bug is dead Metais."

JUNE:

I wanted to sleep. Never have I been so tired. I'd said exactly what the snakes had whispered and now I was getting my reward. I was going to rest. I was going to miss the boy and his light. Though blinding he was, the rays were warm to the skin. Mine had turned hard and were cracking. Up my arms and down the legs, everything was being ripped apart from the inside out. There was a noise around me. Blaring and red but not red, it seeped into the very air.

The boy was being taken away, gone, gone, gone was my light. Bees burst before me and flew down my mouth, into my ears, all the way into my fingertips. Still the noise came, a thousand mirrors shattering. They were trying to stop it. They were trying to sew my skin back together. But they were trying to repair metal with thread.

I laughed and laughed, the queen was so silly, so stupid. Did she think that she could beat me? Did she really think that I would not sleep as I should? It felt so right to close my eyes, to keep my heart so slack. Every breath was hung from the rafters, their necks broken at sharp angles. I had won and now I could stop. At last I could remember exactly who I was, who I'd been. I was going to be free.

DAY:

An alarm had gone off. People had rushed into the room. I guess they had been recording her vitals. Someone had tried to drag me away, and I didn't even try to stop them. My body was not my own. I might as well have been stuffed. I couldn't move, couldn't see. All I could do was scream and scream in my own head.

I had killed her. The only girl I've ever loved was gone forever and it was my fault. I wanted to die. I wanted to bleed myself dry. I wanted to bang my head into the wall until I couldn't tell which way was up. But I couldn't do any of that. I had made a promise and I was going to keep it.

I don't know how long I laid there, spread eagle on the floor. I don't know if anyone came in, or if words were spoken to me. It didn't feel real, none of it. It had happened so fast, too fast. There had been so much to say and too little time.

Greif was nothing new to me. I'd lost almost my entire family. Still I'd managed to live through that. It was only a matter of getting up each morning and going through the motions. There was no quick fix to make a person happier. But this felt different. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. The guilt that weighed me down, festered in the pit of my stomach, it was going to be carried with me for the rest of my life.

I couldn't even bring myself to be mad at June. She'd made the decision I'd been too much of a coward to make. Despite her sickness she'd been completely correct. If she became a martyr then the war effort would be greatly helped. The Republic was sure to win now that the cure deal was off, meaning my rescue and the end to the epidemic.

Yet I couldn't bring myself to be happy for this. All I could do was twirl the ring on my finger, over and over until it left a mark. I couldn't even talk to Thomas when he told me the bad news, as if I didn't already know.

June is dead.

Yup, a lot of you guys guessed it, sorry :P . But don't worry it's not over. I've still got a few more chapters to write up.

PS: Ok so the whole 'promise' thing is my version of their…engagement since the ring had kind of represented a wedding of sorts. The importance of that will come up later.