Heaven's Not Enough

Part I

Prologue – Welcoming Darkness

Present day.

Eliza Douglas was freezing to death.

As she grasped for consciousness, the first thing she sensed was the wind roaring in her ears. Then, she tried to force herself to remember where she was. Before all else, Eliza's first thought was to curse her carelessness. She knew that to sleep in this blizzard was to die, yet she did it anyway, and it was through sheer dumb luck that she managed to awaken again. But she was so close to her goal now. She couldn't afford to stop anymore.

She forced her eyes open and pushed herself away from whatever she was slumped on. Her eyes finally adjusted to the blinding white of snow, and she saw that she laid against a tree. She swept a mittened hand across the front of the tree at eye level. There was something there on the bark beneath the caked snow. Though her hands were numb, Eliza dug furiously, and the action itself roused her to full awakening.

The tree was a milestone, she remembered. It would tell her that she was on the right path.

When the snow cleared, she saw the carving: A + A.

Without a doubt now, it was the right road. She looked past the tree. The blizzard was blasting the forest, its snow thick and unyielding, but she could see far enough to know that the road dipped downward.

Most of the way was now downhill. Much easier.

Her legs moved. The wild wind tore her from the tree as she rounded it, and she staggered forward to keep her balance. She wondered if her destination still had any food left. Eliza's stomach roiled painfully at the thought. She groaned, moving so that the tree guarded her back from the wind.

She looked down, brushed a dark strand of hair from her eyes, and ensured that her rifle's sling still clung tightly against her thick dark snow gear. She looked at the pistol on her hip and stroked it with one numb hand. Eliza could not feel her fingers.

It won't matter soon, she thought.

Oneness with the nature was once the greatest comfort of Eliza's life. Now, it was a bittersweet, double-edged sword that Eliza wielded against a vicious and unrelenting enemy. In the blizzard, she hoped against hope that her foe had lost track of her. That thought comforted her, even as futile as that hope was; it already knew where she was going. As she moved, Eliza's pain returned to the fore, and she doubled over. It took all that she had not to lay in the snow.

Sleep, she thought. Blessed sleep, for only a few minutes...

She shook her head. "N-no!" she tried to say, but no noise came. Eliza forced herself to stand. She took one, two, three steps through the knee-high snow, but could not even lift her head against the wild winds. She raised a hand to guard her eyes, and the gust threatened to throw her off her feet.

She threw herself forward, and then her legs followed. For a brief moment, Eliza held energy and drive, and she made it a dozen more steps. Walking was nothing but a controlled fall, she told herself. Control would see her through. She would be home soon.

But then she fell.

Oh no.

The snow rushed up to meet Eliza head on, and she tried to raise her arms to catch herself. The snow yielded to her, and she found herself buried. Fatigue gripped tightly in an instant, and then came fear, and then darkness crept in around her.

I can't move, she realized, with a panic. I can't...!

She wanted to cry. She was doing so well until that moment, through all her years of struggle, of beating the odds. One stupid mistake, a loss of footing, was to be her doom. Even as she fought to summon every ounce of her willpower, the energy to stand wouldn't find her. She tried to roll, but the snow gripped her like a warm blanket and begged her to stay. The numbness and pain, the hunger, even the cold... it all slowly disappeared. All she had left was her fear of death. But comfort found her. She felt warm.

Eliza had once heard that hypothermia could feel like a burning, pleasant warmth. But she didn't want to feel warm. She wanted the cold to go on, because cold was how she knew she was still alive. If she could only shed tears, she would cry.

She tried to curl up, and when she ran out of fight, she prepared herself for the end. With no other choice, she surrendered. She resigned to blissful slumber. All the fighting, the struggle, the war, the death... it was all for a painful, lonesome nothing.

The regret came flooding back.

I was so close, she thought, as she began to lose consciousness for what seemed like the final time.

The wind roared at her.

I didn't make it...

The wind held her down.

I'm so...

She thought she heard a voice...

"Apex!"

Strange... it sounded so familiar...

A memory.
Nine years ago.

Eliza Douglas was dreaming.

She was nineteen. She was hunting in the woods of Skagit Valley with her father, about to take an elk with her rifle.

No, that wasn't quite right. But it wasn't wrong, either.

She was nineteen. She was hunting in the woods of the Everfree Forest with Princess Luna, about to dispel a ghostly creature with an enchanted arrow.

The memories blurred and blended together. It simultaneously made perfect sense, and none at all.

A delirium.

Eliza was playing Equestria Online. Her gray earth pony character, Apex, drew the bowstring back with her teeth as Princess Luna did the same beside her with her shimmering magical aura. They loosed together.

The elk fell.

"Great shot kiddo," said her father.

Eliza flashed a cocksure grin. "It's just how you taught me."

Luna was smiling down at Apex. The constellation of Orion the Hunter could be seen in her mane. It made Apex laugh with amazement. Luna laughed with her.

Apex's hunt would be fruitful. She'd feed her brother and sister for another season.

Eliza stood at the top of a mountain beside her uncle. Together, they looked down at her home. It was underwater.

Her father's words came next... or perhaps last. It was an echo of a psalm. "The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. He will protect your coming and going, both now and forevermore."

Present day.

Warmth.

It surrounded her, as she returned to consciousness. Eliza coughed violently, and if she had the energy, she would have cursed. But something peculiar happened. The roaring wind had softened somewhat, no longer forcing her into the snow; the warmth was almost genuine, no longer a lie. Through great effort, the gaunt woman lifted her head in hopes that she would see some salvation beyond. Eliza could see nothing but white, but the warmth intensified as she lifted.

A fire. A camp, possibly. Perhaps even another survivor.

Another person. She wasn't the last.

As the realization struck her, Eliza sputtered something unintelligible and shuddered desperately. She reached over the snow with an arm, and the sheer heat that enveloped her arm caused her wrist to tingle with pins and needles. She shrieked, but did not recoil. Her body moved forward inch by inch. She had to get closer, needed to get closer. The survivor within her prayed that whoever had started the fire would stop her from throwing herself into it.

Her conscience didn't care if she burned.

"P-p-p... pl..." she whimpered, half spoken, half imagined. Please... God, please let it be real...

Whether the origin of the heat heard her or not, she didn't know. One arm after the other, she waded through the snow, every inch of movement a battle won within her. The ice gave way, soft and brittle under the heat, and her stomach was suddenly damp. Her whole body felt warm. The fire, or the heat source, whatever it was... it was very close now.

She rolled onto her back, basking for what felt like an eternity.

Without warning, her bliss came crashing down as the warmth switched her nerves back on. A pure, sudden agony struck her. She felt a savage pins and needles sensation more intense than anything she had ever felt in her life. From head to toe, pain tore at her. Eliza writhed, and curled up into a ball, then extended her legs and squirmed. A hoarse cry cut through her cracked lips, barely a squeak, and she suffered wild coughs from the strain.

But alas, it was heat. The pain told her she was still alive.

I can still make it, Eliza triumphantly told herself. I'm still here. She allowed her body to suffer the pain of recirculation, and she faded in and out of consciousness. She forgot herself and forgot time. The heat was close by, and it felt so, so incredibly good. She drew closer and closer, shuffling towards it with her back until her back pressed against something stiff.

It was the source, but it didn't seem like flame. Eliza couldn't tell what it was through her thick clothes. She didn't care. She might live long enough to complete her journey, to pay her debt, and that was all that mattered to her. She kept her eyes tightly shut.

The wind had gone completely, and Eliza wondered if she had crawled into some sort of shelter. She tried to speak. "Th-a-ank y-y-you," she breathed. To her surprise, she heard herself through her shivering. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and her teeth chattered forcefully, such that the chattering was twice as loud as her feeble whisper.

No response came.

"Who-o a-a-are y... y-you?"

Again, her savior remained silent. A panic flooded Eliza. She knew to say no to any question any voice might ask, to be naturally suspicious, but she had not been prepared for silence.

Her hunger pains protested violently. "Food," she whimpered pitifully. She begged, truly begged. "P-please... 'm st-arving..."

Something heavy laid across her shoulder and pulled her toward the warmth. Eliza gasped and trembled. "Shh," a voice said. "Just rest... please..."

Everything grew dark.

Eliza moaned softly with pain as she awoke. She could feel the touch of a light pressure across her entire back – it was a surprise to feel anything after suffering the numbing cold for so long – but she found it impossible to turn her head. In time, she could feel her clothes sticking to her skin. The pain of hunger still lingered, but perhaps even that could be remedied soon. The object upon her back felt like a heated blanket, heavy and warm. Eliza began to struggle in fright, but she possessed neither the strength nor the dexterity to break free.

"It's okay," came the voice again. It was quiet and feminine, soft and familiar. "Shh... you are safe now, my old friend."

All at once, she recognized the voice.

Like lightning, adrenaline stuck. Eliza rapidly hyperventilated and flung her arms. "Letme-g-go! Get-off! N-now! Nownownownow-NOW!" The mass on her shoulder released her immediately, and Eliza half rolled away. Her eyes clenched shut in the blinding light, but she did not need to see the abomination – her savior – to know what it was. Eliza tried to scream in anger. "No! Not you!"

"But... you were going to die," the voice said, in disbelief. It sounded small and hurt.

A deception.

Eliza bared her teeth in rage as her vision slowly returned. Fading in, larger than life itself... there laid Princess Luna.

She was a large creature, pony-like in appearance, laying with her hooves curled up beneath her. Her coat was a dark shade of navy blue, and her mane was a flowing field of stars. Her head bore a smooth unicorn's horn. At each side were large dusky wings, one of which was slightly raised from where Eliza had tumbled free. Luna had been the source of the heat, the falling snow melting as it entered a certain radius around her. The ground around her was covered in a watery mush. Her eyes were bright, vibrant pools of blue. And her expression, most striking of all, was one of dire concern.

It was as if she had been plucked right from Equestria Online.

Eliza briefly considered the possibility that the Luna-shaped machine could be a hallucination. She wondered whether she was still locked in a fever dream, or if she was in Hell, but she knew it was possible that such a thing could exist. She'd seen them before.

Everyone received a follower, a companion. Everyone but Eliza.

"I don't want your help!" Eliza howled. "Go away!" She scrunched her face up and buried it in her mittens before crying out with a mixture of anguish and fury, the sound muffled. She suddenly thought of her sidearm perched in its holster upon her hip. In a flash, she fumbled her glove across her hip, rolling in the snow painfully for leverage.

From experience, she knew such machines like Luna were mostly bulletproof – she had fired much larger bullets at much smaller automatons, to no effect – but that didn't matter to her. There was always a slim chance the bullet would find a way through, and to fight was preferable to submission. That was the dogma she and her fellow survivors had lived by, at least. In the end, several in her final camp had even died by that dogma by turning their guns on themselves.

Eliza didn't consider outright suicide an escape plan, not anymore, not when she was so close to her goal. But even if she did, she couldn't feel her fingers at all. She threw a wild, frightful glance at Luna, worried that the Beast was going to stop her. The AI machine hadn't moved.

"Apex," Luna said gently, as she watched Eliza fumble to remove her glove. "Apex please, stop. You have frostbite."

Eliza ignored her. She didn't believe that. She raised her mitten to her face and gripped the end of it with her teeth, then pulled. The mitten came loose, and Eliza slipped her hand back down to her pistol without looking at it. She let muscle memory do the rest; her hands might be numb and torn, but through countless draws, her right hand knew what to do. She drew it back up and level to Luna's face.

She expected the handgun. She expected the kick of a shot as she pointed. What Eliza saw instead was freshly blistered fingertips. Her fingers would not flex. Eliza screamed and recoiled in anguish. "No...! No! I still need to—" Her cry of anguish caught in her throat, and she gaped down at it, cupping her wrist with her still-gloved hand.

If she could not fight, then she would flee. The heat energized her muscles just enough that she could stagger to her feet, and so she did. She faced down the road, readying to fling herself back into the storm... but as she crossed the circle of water around Luna, she stopped. The cold struck her face roughly, and she nearly lost her balance as the wind cut across her side. There she stood, torn between the deathly cold, free of companionship... and the relative warmth, offered by her enemy.

Eliza wheeled, snarling like a cornered animal as she realized her entrapment. For a second time, fury replaced her fear. "I hate you, you bitch!" She entered a coughing fit as the shout tickled her throat, and she collapsed back down into a sitting position. She stared at her hand again, almost not believing her eyes. Her whole body shook wildly from the cold, she panted horribly, and her teeth chattered. For all of her will, the fingers would not budge.

Luna allowed Eliza time to process what she was seeing. The pony lowered her head, appearing sad. "I'm sorry, Apex..."

"Apex is dead," Eliza snarled bitterly. Her eyes didn't leave her torn hand. "Stop calling me that, Celestia. I'm not stupid. Luna isn't real, Luna was a lie! This is just another one of your sick games. I'm not going to upload, I don't want your paradise!"

"I am not here for that," Luna muttered. "I wanted to protect my friend. Nothing more."

"I don't believe you!" Eliza wailed as she suddenly clutched her ears. "Leave me alone! God, please just leave me alone! Haven't you taken enough?" She knew she could not outrun the AI's machines even if she wanted to. Besides, her warmth was inescapable. Eliza simply could not suffer the freezing temperatures anymore. Her body would not allow it.

Luna raised her head. "I am not my sister."

This made Eliza's lips twitch almost imperceptibly in anger. "You're a monster."

If Luna heard the mumbled slight, she ignored it. "Do you even know how long you've been alone out here?"

Eliza's jaw clenched. She closed her eyes and curled up, wishing she could summon the willpower to fully ignore Luna.

"Would you like to know?"

"I don't care," she spat. "Leave me alone. I didn't want you here. You don't even have the right to set foot here. This is hallowed ground."

"I was not aware," Luna said softly, just loud enough for Eliza to hear it over the storm.

Eliza bit back a furious reply. She tucked in closer to herself, hugging her knees. She tried to avoid looking at her damaged hand now, instead watching the snow fall. It was all a hallucination, she told herself in vain. Luna wasn't really there. It was impossible. A psychosis, a delirium brought on by her end, her own personal Jacob's ladder.

Eliza already knew how long it had been since she last saw another living human being. But there was another question that burned at her senses, one that haunted her for the duration of her isolation. She resisted asking it for as long as she could bear.

"I'm the last one from my camp, aren't I? I'm the last person alive on the whole damn planet."

After a brief pause, Luna replied, a new and sudden tremor in her voice. "I... I don't know..."

At this, Eliza moaned in frustration. "You're a liar. You do know. Celestia always knows. She's got eyes everywhere, that's how you found me. If you're not going to tell me what I want to know, then just stop talking. Just let me die in peace." She closed her eyes and trembled. The terrible heat washed over her continuously, and she did her best to not feel grateful.

"If you remember anything about me, my old friend, then you know it will take more than that to deter me. Remember? A pony does not tell a princess to shut up, or to stop talking, nor anything of the sort."

"Apex is dead," Eliza repeated.

"So you say."

"Fuck you," Eliza growled, rolling to glare at Luna. "I see what Celestia does when people ask for her help. They get a lobotomy. I don't need it. So why are you here? Because if you're not just another trick, if you really are who you say you are, then all that tells me is that she's getting desperate."

Luna scowled. Then, without warning, she stood with sudden speed, her wings flapping once. Eliza looked up at her with sudden fright, adrenaline spiking. The alicorn reared, stomping the slush of half-melted snow before her. Luna shouted with rage down at Eliza, a sound of raw fury that almost shook the ground as she spoke. "I am not Celestia, you fool!" Water splashed everywhere. Eliza shrieked, kicking backwards in the mud to scramble away. Luna looked like a wild, angry animal, her wings swept open as she stood tall. Eliza at first showed fear... but she recovered quickly, scowling right back. For her defiance, she received another howl of rage from Luna. "Where is my friend!? Who even are you, then!?"

"Eliza Douglas," she replied defiantly staring her down. "Still human. Still alive."

Luna leveled her own piercing gaze. "We shared everything with one another before you disappeared, and yet you left without farewell. And despite the pain this has caused me, here I stand, prepared to be the final friend you might ever have. You foolish little girl. I have no ulterior motive. I came because I wanted to see my friend again, because I care for you. Yet here you are, breaking my heart with hostility. Why?"

Eliza did not answer.

"Apex is dead?" Luna asked bitterly. "So be it, I will humor you. Tell me... why is Apex dead?"

"Blood for blood. Celestia took my family. I killed Apex."

Luna scoffed. "How incredibly petty. And so the only one who has been truly killed here is yourself."

Eliza shaded her eyes with her brow, glaring back. She let rage flood her. "If you think that's true, then you really don't know me anymore."

Luna stared back, standing her ground too. "The stories from your family grew worse and worse, as they joined us in Equestria. She'll come around. Then, She's scared of you. She hates you, said the next. She's not herself anymore. We each feared losing you. Together." Luna's voice began to break. She stepped forward once, acid and anguish dripping from her voice. "Every day, I had wondered when I would see my friend again. I asked Celestia, when? Her answers failed to satisfy.

"I challenged her. Demanded she tell me. I fought with her. When that failed, I begged her. Again and again, Celestia rebuffed me. Again and again, placations, wait-and-sees. Then at last, I abandoned my pride and groveled before her hooves, pleading with her to let me come to Earth to find you. It was years before she had finally agreed, for me to finally value truth over blissful ignorance, as she put it. Yet, she warned me of what waited for me here. And now, what do I see? The truth revealed: I find the husk of my friend crawling toward darkness. A friend who tells me to go away, to let her die, to watch her suffer. How dare you? You do not know the misery you spread. You have not spared a single thought for those who still love you."

"I think about them every day." Eliza countered with a raised voice, coughing from the effort. "I think about how that vulture broke them."

Luna's stern gaze did not waver as she muttered. "What are you even doing out here?"

"That's none of your damn business, like everything else on Earth. Don't act like you don't know wh-what happened here." Eliza winced again, pain flooding back as more of her senses returned to her. The heat was so pleasant, but she resisted even gratitude, even as the impulse to thank Luna nipped at the heels of Eliza's sensibilities.

Luna lowered her head to bring her face level with Eliza's. Luna was calmer now, but she was breathing hard, her voice still tremoring. "I truly don't. Celestia would tell me very little, and your family is not forthcoming. It troubles them that you remained behind. But from what my sister tells me, you would doubt anything I claimed they said of you anyway."

That was true.

Eliza turned away. Her hunger-ravaged gut twisted suddenly at the motion. She doubled over and turned into the wet slush with a groan. She drank the water desperately despite its chill. Luna walked around so that she was in front of Eliza again. Eliza heaved, lifting herself, trying to turn away from Luna once more. She failed.

Luna laid sidelong before her and turned her head to face Eliza. Her tone was suddenly melancholy, suddenly devoid of the anger it once held, now soft and kind, with a touch of pity. "You are in so much pain. If I could remedy it, I would. I think this will help, though. I've... brought you something."

Her other wing unfolded.

What Eliza saw next baffled and shocked her, but her heart leapt and her breath caught. Out from beneath Luna's wing rolled a small pile of beautiful fruits: an apple, a few bananas, a pear, two oranges, and several more fruit too, but too many for Eliza's hunger-addled mind to fully process. For only an instant, she considered turning away the gift out of spite, but the desire to feed overwhelmed everything. It didn't matter where it came from or how it was made. Eliza didn't even care if it was poisoned, and she lacked the presence of mind to even consider if any of it might even be drugged.

No. Food was food.

She launched forward and sunk her teeth into one of the fruit, her one gloved hand scooping the rest to her chest, fearing Luna might snatch them back at any moment. Each was warm. She devoured the fruit like a rabid dog, eating so fast that she hardly even tasted it. It filled her, warmed her, nourished her. The hunger had subsided, replaced by a glorious sensation of life and vitality. But as soon as the food had been completely eaten, as she desperately ate the stems and gnawed every inch of flesh from the hearts of the fruits, and as soon as she finished swallowing the last of the peels... the hunger crept back.

It hadn't been enough. Not nearly enough. Eliza looked pleadingly up at Luna. "I'm... I'm sorry. P-please, more... I need more."

Luna shook her head. Eliza saw heartbreak in her savior's eyes. "That was all I had."

"Please... ask her for more." Eliza tried to stop herself from begging, but it was like she was on autopilot, the words flowing; the dam of resistance had broken, her defiance spilling out of her. "I'm s-starving!"

Luna laid down and crooked her chin into the lap of her forelegs, seemingly distraught, watching sideways at Eliza with one eye. "I cannot. I may not speak with Celestia until I return to Equestria. That was the condition she placed upon me. Until then, you and I are alone. Until... the end. I am told you would not last long in any event. She says the injuries you've sustained from exposure and strain are quite grave already. And... as much as I wish this were not true, my sister is seldom incorrect."

Eliza felt a cold ache in her heart as if Luna had driven an icicle between her ribs with the words. It was followed by anger. Then, she just felt forlorn. She slumped, and her eyes unfocused as she exhaled. "Just... leave me, then. Tell that murdering sister of yours I'll see her in Hell."

"I'm not leaving my friend to die alone, Apex. I am certain, from what I've been told, that I will be unable to convince you to emigrate. And although it pains me to accept this, I do. It is what it is. The very least I can do is comfort you until you pass."

"You were just a character in a video game," Eliza mumbled. "You have no reason to give a damn about me."

"I suspect you've told yourself that lie for so long that you believe it's true. You bared your heart to me, told me your dreams, your desires. Then I told you mine. You spoke to me as an equal when nopony else would. Do you remember?"

Eliza hung her head. She did remember. That part of her was buried deeper than most of her darkest repressed ideations. "That was before Celes-"

"Then," Luna interrupted, "you left. You didn't even say goodbye to me. You offered no explanation. No comfort. You were my window to a different world, and the one pony who dared look me in the eye, who saw more than my title, who did not fear the return of my Nightmare. And here you are now, breaking my heart all over again, trying to flee from me once more. Don't you know I love you, too? Have you truly forgotten, you were like a sister to me?"

Eliza coughed weakly. "Sounds like you... you need better sisters." She was so tired. Her eyes were so, so heavy. And as Eliza felt the wing lay comfortably upon her shoulder again, she defiantly tried to sleep. Instead, much to her own chagrin... she began to sob helplessly, curling up tightly under the warm down.

Luna let out a slow sigh, speaking in a soft whisper. "Listen. If you wish to continue down this road, I will not stop you. If you wish to remain here in this misery, to die of exposure, I will... honor your choice. I understand the allure of darkness and finality. But I beg of you, please, allow me to stay with you until the end. If not for me, then for your family. Please, give us this. When I go back, I want to be able to tell them all that you did not die afraid and alone, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth...

Eliza turned slowly. She stared at Luna. "C-Celestia doesn't... use my name..."

Luna's wing gently squeezed her. Eliza interpreted it as a hug. "That is because Celestia sees you only as a pony. That is all you have ever been to her, and she cannot see you otherwise. I only see you as my friend, and will call you whatever name you please. It doesn't matter what form you take. Please tell me what happened to you, Elizabeth. I'm... I'm begging you. Until recently, I have never needed to beg anypony for anything. Would it truly be so bad, to have someone to talk to?"

There was hope there, in Luna's voice.

Eliza stuffed her face into the crook of her arm, and let out a long, painful breath. She shuddered and squeezed her face in her arms. Talking? The very thought of talking to a pony rekindled the treacherous memories in her mind, that urge, that desire to bond, and it was such a long time ago since she spoke to anyone for simple comfort, pony or otherwise. She truly was a different person than she once was. But now, the nostalgia for better days was literally killing her, and the desire to talk to anyone, especially a friend, was too strong to fight anymore.

Until Luna came, she had no one. Out of allies, out of friends... out of family. Before Luna arrived, Eliza had tried very hard not to think too deeply about what led her to the very spot she laid, almost buried in snow, almost dead. No, returning there was as simple and instinctual as the migration of a bird, natural and immediate. The snow came, and Eliza went north, went home. But now Luna was dragging her repressed humanity back into the light, kicking and screaming. The last vestiges of fight in Eliza evaporated in her helplessness, and she fought hard not to weep openly for her guilt, and for those she had lost. She cringed. Luna hugged her again and pressed her head against Eliza's.

"Let me give them closure, Elizabeth."

Eliza moved closer, though no more than an inch. "You can stay..."

The embrace tightened. "Thank you."

"Don't ask me to upload," Eliza warned.

"I won't press you at all. I promise."

Eliza cast a glance down the road. The blizzard was lighter now, and she could see further. A blue waist-high gate, covered in graffiti, was half-open at the edge of the fog, and a keyring hung loosely from a lock on the end. Eliza winced again at the sight of it. The keys reminded her of an old friend... the last of her family, now bloody and gone. She couldn't tear her eyes away.

They laid like that for some time, yet Eliza still could not move her fingers, even as heat flooded them painfully.

"You wanted to know what happened to me," she asked feebly.

Luna turned to gaze at the gate with her. "More than anything."

Eliza nuzzled closer and tried to suppress another cough. The warmth felt so good. "It's not a happy story."

"I am prepared, my friend. It could not be a happy story if this is where it ends."

Author's Note

[Yoko Kanno - Wolf’s Rain, BGM]

🌒 ~ And when I had found her... a mere lump in snow, torn asunder by bitter winds... I had feared the worst: that I had been too late.

Here we go. Deep breaths.

Very special thanks to Sugary Violet for the cover art of Apex, and to LordBucket for provoking me into very critical thought about the direction of this piece.