The first few steps feel like a dream.

Light ripples and blurs together, like stepping through an old memory where all your senses are heightened and washed out at the same time.

Lindon needs a good shower.

Or ten.

His golden hair - usually in waves - is a dark soaking mess against his face. Even his honey skin is pale and washed out, eyes tired and dark. Lindon's posture is uneven and arched, every hardened feature now soft and unrecognizable.

Dirty. Lean. Exhausted.

He scans the world with his calculating hazel eyes, lingering a moment at a time on destroyed buildings and islands. The cities you could see were covered in growing coral and surrounded by water. Along the outskirts there was no one, but that didn't mean anything.

If I had to guess, several of the European countries were still filled.

Communities with some kind of structure far superior to those we've found in the smaller counties.

Superior to Kiel's small world.

Lindon senses me but doesn't turn. His focus on hell. Hell on earth.

"How long...?" He asks quietly.

I sniff at the air and sigh. "97 years, 3 days, and 7 hours."

Lindon's back straightens, visibly disturbed. His face contorts in disgust and frustration, gaze honing in on something behind me.

I can only assume Daniel.

My gut somersaults, bile rolling up my throat. I would've never in a million years considered this outcome a possibility.

"Why...?" He whispers to me. "Why? I don't understand..."

"Karma did this... Not by himself, not even remotely. But it was his scheme. I couldn't... I..."

Words are gone.

Nothing but panicked static racing through my head and filling my mind with an awful dread.

"I'm sorry I couldn't-"

"If you apologize to me even once for being detained, there will be a much bigger issue than the company you're keeping," Lindon interrupts.

My mouth goes to swallow but there is nothing but a dry desert inside.

I can't find any more words.

Lindon heaves a large breath and pivots, briskly scooping me up into his arms and holding me tight. So warm, so safe. My heart aches in his arms. Silent tears topple out when I blink.

He grabs the back of my neck and massages gently. "We need to rest. We can reforge the connection tomorrow."

"Why wait?" I mutter bitterly. "You'd prefer death?"

He shakes his head and pushes his face onto the top of my head. "No, of course not. But I also don't expect you to have the strength after swimming to the bottom of the ocean."

I simply shrug.

So endlessly drained.

"So Karma did this. He had us separated?"

I nod, looking up at him through my messy hair.

"And he's the kid's father?"

Another nod.

Daniel is far from a child, even if he acts like it sometimes.

"And the others?"

"Meika and Shai' are with me. As is Remi and Th-" my heart shrinks and cracks at the slip up. "Daniel."

Lindon narrows his eyes at me but lets it slide. Likely preparing to ask another time and keeping a mental note.

He appears in better condition than me, but that's not entirely shocking.

When I first broke out, I felt decent. A mild bit of tired, operating off of bits of stolen mana from both the earth and stray beings alike. Something Lindon won't ever have to do.

Our connection feels like a rotting, corrupted cord, sparking with fraying wire in the center. When he threw me onto the beach, I felt the pulsing of life force trying to surge through my body. Perhaps it's Meika's fault or more than likely Kiel's in addition, it won't matter before long.

We need to repair the damage.

The God in my arms, my counterpart, stares down at me before doing one more once over. Constantly paranoid, over protective.

"This isn't a dream then..." he muses mostly to himself. "But there were more of you?"

"When I broke free from confinement, I stumbled upon a group of three..." I begin, glancing back for the first time, myself. "Daniel, Remi, and Theron. I didn't know what to make of this world, but from the way the earth looked, I could only assume people were hunting each other and everyone existed in a state of complete anarchy. They told me there was a civilization they'd heard of growing in India..."

I take a deep breath and look up to find him watching me intently, focused.

"We traveled together since where they wanted to go was on the way. I got a pretty good glimpse into the way this world has fallen apart, humans hunting each other in packs, low totem beings vanishing, and illness..."

"You could not save him," he finishes for me, skipping ahead many sentences more than had left my lips.

I half nod, half shake my head. "Not even with modern - not so modern - medicine."

"I'm sorry for your loss, dear."

Seizing a small window of opportunity into the soft spot in his chest, I turn and point and Remi. "The loss is hardly my own, that poor girl loved him to death. As he did her. It's not my loss alone..."

He frowns a bit but doesn't say anything.

"I died three days ago... Or as close to it as I will ever come. And that man you want to kill saved my life and brought me back from the dead so that I could get to you... Because deep down I know he wanted to right his wrongs. Please understand that I want to hear him out and it has nothing to do with trusting you."

Lindon keeps one arm around me, shifting us to face the group hard at work. "It has nothing to do with trust, Iridian. I know that. I suppose I don't understand, I wasn't here to know what happened, but I'm not just going to throw myself at him because you say so."

Of course, he isn't.

I'm not demanding he does so, either.

But I find myself feeling disheartened when there is so much more. Lindon wasn't with us, but just as that logic works in his favor, it works in mine.

"You weren't there..." I mutter. "So please know that I am just doing my best here and so are they. Remember that they didn't need to help me, they didn't need to give up their souls and lives just to save me. Even if it does mean the earth might've collapsed, even if things would've been more hopeless. They don't truly even know that much."

Lindon's eyes trace from me, back to the depths of water we'd burst from. He searches for something there, but when his features pull into a painful frown, I feel nothing but regret.

"It's a strange day when you're more compassionate than I am, wouldn't you say?" he says quietly.

Smiling a little, I push my face into his shoulder and smell the warmth.

"Why aren't we heading into the city?"

"We've never been inside the city."

His brows furrow. "That's never stopped us before?"

"We'll camp out here tonight, Lin. You don't have any experience with what this world has become and I don't particularly have the energy for an all-out war."

Lindon is slightly concerned at the mention of war and opens his mouth to argue, but doesn't reply. The inherent urge he has to expect the best from people is astounding, but unwise right now. He instead begins taking account of our surroundings, following me back to where Remi and Meika were making a fire pit and setting up wood.

I know he won't speak much at all in the coming night.

Perhaps to Meika, but he has a lot to process.

A lot to learn.

And a deep part of me wants to go find Daniel. Both eager to question him and just find some semblance of understanding, I find myself spinning in circles without the blue-eyed Demi-god in sight.

Even Shai'rune sits diligently beside their master, senses trained on our surroundings.

Slow breathing and several seconds of clear focus catch the scent of him. Faintly. Almost a mile down the coastline.

"He said he wants to be alone," Remi says quietly, interrupting my thoughts.

Her tired face barely moves in expressions. I sense the relaxation that comes with knowing a task is almost over, especially now that we have Lindon. Even I don't know where we go from here.

A sinking feeling spreads into my guts.

Alone.

"He might never come back," I mutter, mostly to myself but Remi's eyes widen.

"But-"

I shake my head, giving everyone a glance before turning my back. "I'm going to find him."

Lindon tenses, pushing upward slightly in an attempt to follow me, but is held back by unspoken words.

I will be safe.

I need to be the one to find him alone.

Meika barely even glances back at me before giving a soft smile into her book and raising a brow at me. "Am I in charge again?"

She wants to make me laugh.

Ease my mind.

But it's racing and I can only give something closer to a grimace.

Lindon smirks a little too but looks more confused than anything.

Stalking down the beach, I try to steady my pace and keep the frantic energy out of my steps. Being heard while I'm too far away to catch up is risky. Scaring an immortal being is dangerous. And the knowledge in between threatens to tear apart the last several months, breaking down everything we've ever known.

I faintly see his silhouette shadowing along the horizon line.

Walking.

Slowly, sunken inside of himself.

Dragging his feet, crossing his arms loosely.

A beautiful misty painting whispers of when the world was still intact.

My legs pick up and push into the sand like lead, chasing after him in the most anticlimactic pacing match. Daniel isn't truly rushing anywhere, simply avoiding.

Avoiding and escaping like he's apparently always done.

And when I finally catch up to staring at his back, I almost don't want to disturb him.

Sighing internally, I reach out to touch his shoulder and find myself slipping away.

"I can feel you, Iridian."

The more squeamish part of me swallows uncontrollably and takes a step back before stiffening up.

"You're not leaving."

"Didn't say I was," Daniel replies, still not turning to look at me.

I find myself frowning. "You're scaring her."

"I promised her I wouldn't leave, she made me," he says, before casting a side glance. "I think you're more afraid of me leaving than she is."

My teeth click and grind but I don't have a proper argument.

"I need to know why... I need to know so many things..."

Daniel shifts to face me for the most part, still reluctant to engage fully but still participating. "What do you want to know, Ira? Why I did it? Why I never stopped? Because those are obvious enough to a God like you..."

"Like me?" My brows furrow and I feel myself recoiling. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He winces slightly and retracts again. "I didn't... Mean it like that, I'm sorry... But think about it..."

My mouth goes to lash out, but my mind fights back. Flashes of things I've done, things I've seen. How I would deal with people who didn't obey me, who didn't have the same vision I did.

Nothing like Lindon.

And everything like Kiel.

"Because I am the kind of God who would kill, I am the kind of God that won't tolerate disloyalty or disobedience... Because I am the kind of God who would make consequences for failure."

The deep sea of blue in Daniel's eyes fade to the darkest night sky, looking out towards the ocean as if they could escape my sight.

Perhaps that's what he thinks of me.

"He abused you... Kiel manipulated you - you and all of your siblings - into fighting his battles. Perhaps even convincing you that this was for the best at one time."

He nods once, a short and curt acknowledgment.

"So how did you end up with two humans? What made you change your mind? Why won't you explain anything..."

Daniel tilts his head back to stare at the great expanse of night sky, something none of us has seen in full clarity for a long time. He considers this, eyes glowing with repressed emotions and past images.

Then, suddenly, he sits down in the sand.

Lowering myself down next to him, I wait patiently and find myself tracing in small, crusty clumps of wet sand.

"He always considered himself a master of torture... I think that's how he holds power over my sister and several others. But when he captured the first God... A smaller, frail girl who tended to plants, I didn't know what he was doing until I never saw her again. He thought if he could kill everyone else, he could kill you and Lindon."

Nodding, my vision blurs in the pain and frustration I remember. The yanking and twisting and bleeding. Every single second attempting to escape the hell inside that temple.

I'd have given anything.

Kiel took that from all of them.

All of us.

And he could never be forgiven now.

"But the earth kept falling apart," Daniel continues, taking a deep breath. "I watched the plagues destroy the European strongholds and run a course through Africa and I knew that once the humans began turning on one another, this was out of our hands. It was too late... The damage had been done..."

My mouth goes uncomfortably dry.

I can't swallow it away.

Finally, Daniel turns and makes eye contact with me. "I wasn't brave enough to go find either of you. I didn't have the strength to explain myself or face the consequences of my actions... So I found myself leaving New Delhi in the middle of the night and setting out to learn and help the people I found. It took me all over the place and I really got to see the lives I destroyed... But after a decade or so, I found my way back to the United States or what crumbling mess was left of it. I found the group with Theron and Remi and decided to join them, to protect them... I don't know why."

"To be honest, I didn't either," I murmur.

He laughs a little at this. "I know."

"Why didn't you tell me once you found me? I've given you every chance, Dan..."

He shrugs but doesn't answer right away. Daniel keeps coaching himself mentally, convincing himself to explain.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not going to let him hurt you... I just need to understand," I say, pleading. Begging him to give me the last piece.

I want everything to fit together.

Just so that I can hold onto it.

"I was and still am afraid... It's just as painful for you to accept me without consequence as it is for you to shun and reject me... I know there is no winning, but I cannot forgive myself for what's happened. I don't know if I ever will. I can't even face it myself, I don't know how to just spill it out. Especially not to you."

"This is a good start."

"I suppose," he says. "It's hard to say."

The soft, salty smells of the water brush up and threaten to swarm us but recede with the tide. Closing my eyes and shutting out the world with every possible sense, I listen to our breathing and the odd lack of silence floating in the air.

Sand smooshes against my palms, reminding me of a wet cinnamon and sugar mix. Such things would be interesting to locate now, but the memory is warm and gentle.

"Daniel, do you think this world is worth rebuilding?" I ask, feeling the tension in my body ease. "Do you think it is easier to destroy this planet and start over?"

He knows I'm considering it from the tense stare he grants me. "It isn't about easy, Ira. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Do I think life can be rebuilt as it was? No. But should we at least try to paint with the ashes? Absolutely."

"Paint with the ashes..." I murmur. "Hm..."

He twists to face me and stares at me head-on. "Perhaps you did create this world and choose to exist in it to maintain order, but you created a lot of souls in the process. Souls that will have existed for nothing."

I raise a brow at him. "Nothing is for nothing, but I do understand your point. So then I have to ask you, since it is not your own life you are worried about, what is worth saving?"

"There were millions of people that never wanted to harm anyone, millions of people who only wanted to continue on with their small lives... This planet is beautiful, though there will always be so much missing from it, new things can be created. This is a place that even you have so many memories with..."

I nod, mind wandering over to Theron and how it would be nothing like my promise to him.

Even I don't know if I have the strength to destroy those memories.

It's not that I want to, it's how hopeless every other alternative feels.

"Humans will riot again, that is their flaw. It's created much good but also broken them. Watching something time after time be good for them and tearing it apart."

"There's some adventure to that," he smiles, the light ever so slightly returning to his eyes.

Perhaps Lindon won't need to convince me at all.

Maybe the job is no one's alone, but the truth.

Even I am attached to this planet, this solar system.

These stars don't look the same from anywhere else.

Pushing off the ground, I rub the sand off my wrinkle dried pants and offer my hand out to him. "You don't know if you will forgive yourself and that is fine. But if you want us to try and save the earth, you're going to have to help me."

I offer him my own smile, playful and almost taunting.

Even though Daniel looks tired and worn out from life itself, he smirks again and nods. Taking my hands, he stands effortlessly.

"I guess if I don't have any other choice," he says, masking the chuckle in his voice.

"Good," I say, tapping his shoulder with the back of my hand and turning. "I forgive you, Daniel... Even if you don't."

We both start walking back towards the camp in silence until he sighs.

"I know."

I know, I know. This was supposed to be the last chapter, but I just couldn't rush things lol. NOW there is only one more, so I hope you appreciate this extra-long, mack truck of a chapter.

I love you all so much and I'm honestly feeling extra grateful to have you guys today. 

I'm dedicating this chapter to Cross-Warrior for her amazingness. Period, the end. I'm joking. This lovely human being is one of the kindest, most supportive people I know, and what better way to thank and appreciate her than to dedicate a chapter with the loose ends of her favorite character. 

I'm sorry I ruined your ship lol.

Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed it, friends! 

Stay tuned for the last chapter and have a great day! <3