“…Seth… Open the… *clang* …I know… hear me…”

Her voice was an echo, so distant and yet so close. Bouncing around through every plate like there wasn’t a solid point to truly hear it. Her fist beating against his chest and ringing… strangely hollow. Regret found more footing than concern though.

‘Hgrrmm… This is what I get huh… I help her out and all she does is demand more… heh… I guess I deserve it for everything I put her through...’

Thoughts were even ringing hollow in here, no one left to hear but him. For sure this time. He knew it was over. No more berating resentment or grief fueled pain. Maybe a bit of exhaustion, but that should just be expected. Because it was all gone, burned away, melded in, and put to rest. Though, everything else seemed a little… too empty. Unconscious movements just coming up with nothing. Sternum rising for air just… phantom pain. Trying to shift doing even less. Blinking was pointless at least. Nothing but darkness all over again. And yet… And yet he was still here. Still aware of the world.

He could feel the warmth of the sun heating the plating, the cold dust he’d missed sucking it away. The shift in the ground as Aegis knelt down beside him, the little bit of warmth that came with presence. The slight sound of wind rushing in to caress all the trees he’d remade. All the signs he needed, to know that he succeeded. To know that Resent was nothing but a memory now. One that could be forgotten with time. Time th- at-

“OPEN YOUR EYES!!!”

Aegis’ grip was iron on the chest plates, shacking the lifeless armor for everything it had. Disparity too clear but she had to know this wasn’t true. That hope for anything, that chest to heave, that stupid smile to open, those damn eyes to… to prove this was over. But that helmet just flopped about, falling to the side off its own weight. Denying that desperate hope. That want to celebrate what little there was. The damning crush of all her worry becoming lead and sadness. That…

“hgrr… Can’t I just sleep for a minute…?”

That concern, that rising sorrow, all of shocked away as one sleepy eye fluttered open… On. The blue dim of his power more than enough proof to force everything adverse away. Force away whatever truth she’d thought she’d felt. Allow her the chance to match that smile as best she could and finally feel this win.

“HeH… There you go scaring me again. Come on, we won… We won right?”

She couldn’t hid the warble, the knot in her throat… the empty space past that dim glowing eye. She couldn’t fight what she’d felt, the empty weight of the armor in her hands. The hollow clang of it as she let it fall back to the barren ground it had fallen in. Where it still laid… unmoving.

“Please tell me you finished it. Please…”

Still echoing, still bouncing around. But at least it wasn’t as dark anymore.

“Yeah… I got him… There’s nothing left to worry so much about…”

He wasn’t a good liar, or at least never could fully hid the truth. The truth that there wasn’t much left of him either. He could see, feel the edges. The contouring plates that fit together when he bent, the joints that swiveled every way he could move, the servos still wrapped in power. The little pieces all over. Though they were fading away… little by little. It… it wasn’t like all the times before though. No cold, no flashes of regret and misfiring nerves. Just a feeling of being… tired. Like there wasn’t anything left to do today. But that smile looking down on him, the one fighting not to fall down. The one… trying not to cry over him. Filling all the space he could see, outshining the sky cleared to kindred blue. It at least added its own warmth to what little was left.

“…y-you can’t go… not like this.”

Her voice just kept getting lower. Tousled over blond, blackened with kicked up darkness, trying to hide away those orange hued eyes… Trying to hide away what was already plinking against the metal under her grip. All that strength weakening against what was left as his chest, trying to raise him back up, couldn’t raise the already dead. His body wasn’t in there. Maybe some ash… no… No there was only ever going to be one end for him. Dust. One last stain on this world, but at least it was kept out of sight. Kept in the darkness of his empty armored cocoon. His threads stayed their best despite, even as they slowly succumbed to entropy befitting someone without a purpose left. Slowly dissipated to whatever came next.

And yet… even when he should be afraid. Sad. Be raging against what was on coming. He wasn’t. He didn’t want to. He was tired, as tired as there could be in mortal terms. He’d done what he promised. He’d healed away the damage his town… his people had caused. Sure, there would still be scars, still be those hurt and missed dearly. He couldn’t deny the one stooped over him. But that kind of pain wasn’t what he could heal. That was on them… it was always on them. Crimes had already been punished. Wounds had already healed… Well, maybe some needed one last little push.

“You don’t have to cry over me… This is just how things go…”

The weight, weakness, the inability, this damn knot trying to break its way out. Aegis couldn’t stand this. It didn’t have to end like this. He wanted to atone, to give back, to heal more. This couldn’t be where it ended.

“Stop talking! Just… save what you have and… Fuck!! You don’t deserve to die like this!!”

“There you go demanding again… heh… Maybe it does suit you more…? But there’s no undoing what’s been done…”

His voice was already starting to fizz and lose focus. His eye dimming ever more. A frantic hysteria trying to will up a means to stop this, to give him something to cling to. Focus shooting to her arm, to her terrible shield still hoarding something, anything! Hold lost in needed moment, will and grip pressed to demand again of something only barely known. Straining already fraying, contorting already lost, breaking- *pat* that hysteria back down to sorrow.

An armored claw stopping her grip, stopping her spiral to something that would never work anyway. What little energy left used up more, for her sake. A hand over hand offering up what it could… and couldn’t.

“Stop worrying… This… this is… actually what I want.”

That sorrow took his metal hand, gripped it as tight as she could. Felt it loosen as she couldn’t hold back like this. Desperation staring into that eye and trying everything to dissuade.

“But there is one thing left… Give that to Ohm would you…”

That loose piece, a sliding plate from his palm, dropping away and into hers. Confusion flashing with terminal worry, but that armored hand curled hers before she could try to replace it.

“Power has a way of staying… It just can’t ring forever. Give him that… It should heal him like I healed everyone else…”

The plate was warm against her palm, buzzing softly like Buster’s sword but… waiting for something. For a need.

“But… But what about you?”

She couldn’t stand it anymore, couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. Staring into that softly smiling eye with everything she had left.

“I… heh… I finally get to dream…”

That hand lost what strength it had to it, fell away to the dust it had fallen in. And that one lonely eye closed. Still smiling like nothing bad would ever happen again.

“No… No NoNO! Wake up damnit! Wake up!!”

Laden grasp and forceful hand scrambling for purchase on something they could never hold.

“You can’t die for this! You shouldn’t have to!!”

Shaking, pounding, trying everything they could never manage to bring about.

“Why…!! God damnit why…”

Only for them to lose even this impossible fight. Crumpling down on lifeless armor, being rained upon on such a clear sunny day. Not a cloud left in sight, yet shadowed in darkness unfitting of a hero. Pools steaking away before they could claim divots and spacings. Nothing left of what had once scorned passive. Hands finally able to comfort too late. So many broken promises forgiven in a single one kept. So much left unsaid, so much left undone. Time being eaten away in sorrow wrought empting.

Clouds returning to the sky they had been forced from. Heat of rebirth risen with its humidity. Air allowed to breathe and be breathed. Life allowed to find back what it had been scared away from. Intrepid songs and chirps seeing possibilities for themselves. Looking out over this barren cut between. As light at last lost its standing, that oppressive sun taking its over long course. As the darkness stretched and all the radiance faded to refracting yellows. Cold spreading as the last of that forest found its natural state. And those seeking understanding added their own shadows over.

A wining pair of jets to defeat all other claimants to the sky, more footprints disappearing into the darkness left to mark, that feeling of being looked down on and yet ignored all the same. Too much for them to take in, too much for them to handle. The reminder of their pain and the monument to their fallen, the graveyard left undisturbed and desperately forgotten. No more would it loom and gleam and stain. Now it was just memory that could be left in the past. Healed… with time.

Time that was at an end. No more wallowing, no more ignoring, no more staying broken and knelt over an empty suit of armor. Dried up eyes blinking at last, sleeve rubbed against them to keep the dust away. Arms digging under and through to where they could. To where Aegis could pick up this cold proof of the end to so much terror. Another reminder almost bringing down this effort. So many times carrying him up, yet now with nothing to show for it all. Shaky knees a hugging lift refuted falling back into the past. It was time to face that vaunted brighter future.

Her comrades meeting her as she turned from their awe. Limp arms and tossed helm saying more than needed saying. Fallen sorrow and numb advance keeping the rest away. Erd left with nothing but silence to fill his own void. Flanking Buster and Samurai more somber and following. Procession begun with no pallbearers but one. Just creaking metal as Aegis stepped onto their left spooling bird. Silent demand to leave pulling everything to her. The broken obstinate but falling in line. Erdwut the last back on, with fear and sober looks to this once great stand trying to make sense of what was out of his prevue. But now fully his to deal with.

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The forest below flowed by unconscious and uncontested. Matched paths and formations made adding brief derision. All falling away as what came may. The skyscrapers of Kadia prickling some senses back to the forefront. Rooftops manned and looked down from in duty. Rumbled and shaken by what had been done. Cracked mirror glass reflecting back what it wanted. Showing Aegis the sum total of what had been broken. Yet what was made worse, already fragile and near snapping. Reminding her of her duty to those gathered deep in their shadow. Throngs riled like ants of a disturbed nest. Yells and screams for justice to be done. For their safety to be assured. For the villain that made their lives uncertain to be punished for the crimes… of wanting to atone.

“Land short… They need to see.”

Her voice was low, almost impossible to hear for herself. But it shocked those somber escorts and was heard too clear by those manning this hearse. The lowering whine spinning slower and slower, the engines tilting in to block away that broken reflection. Forcing her head down in self-demanding recenter. This wasn’t time for sadness. Grip under armored back tightening harder around its charge, edges hidden digging in and reminding her of what this had to be. This was the end to it.

Final deceleration rocking her to the side, touchdown in the middle of the street leading to their Hill. Already disturbing those decrying their own fragility, but somethings had to be. The street was a mess of waste and anger. Storefronts and windows bearing the brunt. Frustrated looks already meeting their ‘saviors’ before they could fully disembark. Yet losing their fire as their cargo became known. A slow advance, real procession at last. Proud swords matching their guarded pallbearer in victory outwardly shown. A victory to be seen, to be felt, to be known. To extinguish, to calm, to give back hope its home. The throngs, the crowds, the protests demanding. All was quieted as Aegis and her team walked this path. Walked him back to where he should have belonged, yet now must rest for all eternity. To the rising joy of those unknowing of his truth.

A part forming, allowing, clamoring for recognition. Stern familiar glares softening to bright exuberance. Fear and stress turning to relief like switched masks. Every heavy step awakening more of what was being forced down, or just saying it’s time to stop agitating and joining the crowd. Aegis couldn’t help feel the cynicism and hypocrisy. Could only add another battle to the list. But still this was not the time. This was their time to celebrate their victory against evil. Their own once and for all.

A single clap, slow and pessimistic, irking and demeaning yet rising to hide that vile shadow. Cheering unable to be kept back as the standing ovation lost decorum. The whistles of glee, of trying to be the loudest to praise, to make themselves heard over everyone else. A modern roman triumph to shower the conquerors in love and admiration again. In spite of all the vitriol this promenade had been filled with only moments ago. Just more that Aegis had to ignore. And leave to that prepared face already posturing to take its brunt.

The stairs kept clear as security still held out. Another accent in penance for failure, but seen only as pageantry for another call to calm. The procession stopping short with their leader from the rear, but Aegis refusing this kind of grandstand. Erdwut could have all the glory he wanted, but this was a burden only she could bear. And the others would rather keep the worst at bay, and show a united front for others to deal with. So another climb, step after step. Another chant echoing through the numb revitalization so much had been sacrificed to achieve. Erd’s words just more pointless posturing to soak up everything. Everything that… that she couldn’t have handled. Allowing her only this burden to carry. Giving her this moment to have in peace.

A moment of retracing pain back to where it broke. Up in altitude he had fought to stay at. Through doors he had opened for himself now broken and shattered for all they had truly been. The foyer still disarray managed. Melted tiles kept as a reminder yet normal function restored as best it could be. Receptionist Felicia still manning her desk, now fortified as precaution with bagged sand and metal addition. Yet still she was wide eyed as that armored terror returned to her bastion. Returned to one last time frighten her back. And yet even she understood that this was not the end wanted. Sorry look meeting Aegis as she passed her by. As she made her way to where such dead may lie.

The elevator complained but it could manage for the few floors it had to drop. The central structure off limits yet cared for by few. Vaults of trophies and weapons and memorials too numerous to display. But a solemn corner glowing blue and signed to keep away. The only place left for him. Techno’s den, spilling out to the greater hall. Backlog and overindulgence creating much but finding few uses. A single machine rowed a few in line was Aegis’ destination, the source of that glow and the only place she would allow this end to be. Tubes big enough to hold a person indefinitely, cryogenic technology from some mad scientist long since defeated. Already combed over for what it held as worth, and doomed to be catalogued and ignored. But not in disuse.

The machine opened as if knowing and long prepared for this day, frost fog spilling out in ominous folds. And yet it too shall wait for its time as Aegis had conflicting duties to fulfil. To prevent desecration and yet keep the image so many demanded. The armor set down in ginger reverence, almost sinking her back with the weight of its sorrow. But a hand cupped its head for the moment of reconciliation, and resolved to its chosen course. A twist, a swivel up, the head freed from its joint and released into her care. The goal of her ceremony spilling out in fine grain. The darkness, the dust disappearing into the dim light of his better tomb.

A slow process, but a necessary expense. Each piece removed in similar fashion. And each made to relinquish its final stain. Flacks tried to flutter away as they spilled out of every open junction. Poured in place of its original position, as if to restore him upon its conclusion. At last the chest came, yet its own burden was rendered the hardest. And so Aegis accepted this one by hand. That release behind the shoulder bracket opened its plates like a flower, yet with no color but all as one. All the light sucked away in cold, taken away and rendered mute. Stolen from its-

Her hands pressing into it, yet found no such chill, no such cling, no such siphonous taint that had plagued so many. The darkness, the dust, the desiccation of a laceroid had always been cold, always taken what it wanted from everything it poisoned, sapped away energy to disappear and be fought over perpetually. Yet… yet this was warm. Like ashes of a fire simple left to smolder. Or finally finding satiety at long last. Particles caressing, yet not clinging to her skin. And clumping together as if to stay as one, yet still failing that. But still… still this tomb had to be filled.

Handfuls of scooped out darkness passed to its place center. A vague form filled out and a body laid to rest as best could be managed. Aegis looking down to her own hands after, fearing their burden, their stain and defiling. Yet coming up clean, save for the piece still needing to be passed along. A lingering look and curled up press giving her a wind at her back to keep going. Scattered parts reassembled and dragged away, not needed anymore and set aside for later. She still had to say her final goodbyes.

The tube knowing that the time had come, glass sliding back over to seal this freezing sarcophagus. Automatic systems releasing their means, fogging the glass to near impermeability. Making sure this last small vestige was preserved and spared from forgetting. That Seth was allowed to be separated from the Rage that terrorized so many. A single hand somberly placed to offer her final passed feeling. A tremble against the cold glass steadied as best it could be. A heavy breath of cold fog, of chemical wash and amniotic spare. A strained fight to keep composure, that even this end was… better… than…

That composure was stole away as that lone hand was lonely no more. The fog of stasis and condensate parting. Printed with hands… no… claws. Only just bigger than hers by simple stature, but nothing close to their hated possibility. But just as innumerable, just as dreadful, yet… yet just as solemn as her own. Coming and going like a funeral congregation. Passing on their own wishes of the dead to see them off in peace. The… the Garkah he had spoken of, that he’d sacrificed so much for. They’d followed her, or they’d been here all along? Whatever the truth, they were giving their last regards. To the one that hoped to save them from their fate. Yet two among them bore this stronger than the rest, staunch in their places on opposite sides. A curious look up to catch a glimpse only receiving nothing in return. Nothing but a warm tearful feeling as it released its hold. Its only hopes and dreams already fulfilled. And its own sadness buried deep in its own duty left to play.

Slowly and surely only two were left, one physical and feeling common with so many souls. The other just a staunch yet… unwilling to relinquish something far deeper. Aegis could feel it through the glass just as crushing. A guilt driving them down, a sadness in its grip to keep hold. Another duty to tie her hold as well. A shared guilt in being unable to stop the inevitable. And shared wish…

That he truly dream at last.

Emptiness. Cold. A feeling like falling reversed. A light too bright to make sense of, yet unwilling to blind. Colors forming out like the world resetting and reshaping yet a perception expanding faster than mortal bounds! Landscapes flying past. Kadia a blur before forest accelerated away. The ocean shore inclining out and taking its place. Waves breaking at a back… his back. A swirl on will, a turn over to see before it all crashed away. A reflection on the water calming to open sea. A claw reaching out to trace this path ballistic and increasing. Seeing back a form reaching in tandem, flying across the world like a soul loosed of burden and strife. A soul only his, only Seth. That Garkah, that being of dichotomy. Flying at speed to bounds no more. Splashing his wake into spiraling dance, a joyous revelry too much to keep back. No fear, no rage, no resentment to be had. Just a spirit free, and yet locked on a path.

Cold distance and mountains of white trailing away. Storms holed and altitude gained. Acceleration not terminal, already out stripped. Orbital path tracing hard something only he knew as true. Gravitational weight long since cut away, flying slingshot around a world only half his. Meeting that void calling him back, the blue and red and green of transition fading away to black and raging yellow. The height of his accent merely perigee amid the fellow freed souls given peace. That void made a blur in its own star lit extremes, that yellow raging center taking him into its grip. Holding him before it as he took in its radiance. The real warmth felt too much already but now simply a parting gift. As pathing stayed its boundless speed, orbital mechanics took its reversing course. A course set long ago, winding between worlds to slow its excessive speed, to let it see the sights before choosing its new home. A hold over, a plotted memory. The Ark was not so blind in its choices, and all its excess knew this path without fail.

More acceleration, less light to set the scale. More streaking stars in overlong tails. Speed made a plaything everlasting and true. Too much for mortal coil but paltry for the soul. More systems past through, empty desolate and marveling crush. A few deorbited bodies smashed through yet again. A few lonely stars giving more light to stem the darkness. All of it filtering out to a single dim point. An approaching destination locked in too great to be anything but that other home. A single star of the same raging yellow, a rocky world far from fallow, a prickle at this abstract journey as magnetism made its wrath known. A world stretching in of more blue green horizon.

Mountains distant and little more than rises upon a carpet of grass so dense it crests in the wind. Intermittent groves hidden away by trees thin enough to pluck. A sea opposite reflecting that sun as it set upon this world so distant yet known for every part if its grandeur. Every part of its past of horrid cruelty. And yet gleaming along that shore laid signs of its restitution. A city unwalled and spread about. A hope glimmering like another star in the sky.

A sky calling back as even home failed to hold. As freedom called its clarion notes to even the bounds of this dreamscape possibility. As colors took hold and spiraled beyond mention, as even the mortal plain failed to hold imagination. And all as that smile never left his face. As the dream of release from strife graced its true deserving.

As the world returned to the mundane dim, only brighter by his presence. A smile too clear to be right, yet unable not to be seen on his departed ashes, and telling his mourners that he would rest well and dream eternal. And yet still they held to their self-demanded holds. The glass tube of his coffin graced by his last two defenders of memory. One physical and kind, the worry of his life that tried to protect him from the worst, that beared him here as only she could. And the one bereft, left in guilt yet solace that Seth had defeated the thing he could not. Threat hunching in holding back sorrow, alone of his kin as the only unable to let him go. Not in malice or selfishness or irreverence to the cause. Simply the only one with who blame had collapsed upon willingly. Self-administered, holding this vigil and keeping check. Something that could only be alleviated by staying as long as he could.

Soon the only one left to bear this burden. Aegis reconciling with her own blame in turn, but knowing that duty called her to protect still what he had achieved. His suit taken as a mark of proof and token trophy. So that his body may rest in peace. A somber look back to meet Threat in invisible sympathy, matched unseen yet taken as a kindness undeserved. A shame that wallowed and plucked at his threading. As even his time in solemn watch came to its just end as well. And purpose renewed found his relinquished hold in kind. A purpose all his own. To see this soul restored.