They run.
He blinks open a watery grey eye.
“I am sorry for everything,” I whisper, stroking his hair.
“You saved me,” he whispers. “That’s all I ever dreamed.”
I reach out and pull the silver necklace that is his collar from his neck, tossing it away.
“Hold on, they are bringing him. Do you remember when Mum made those apples, and she got so distracted by the conversation we were having that she burnt them and smoked out the house?”
Walker shakes his head. “I can’t remember anything happy.”
My eyes fill with tears.
The Resistance members lower Legion’s body to the ground, but they are too afraid to get close.
Walker rolls onto his stomach and drags himself by one arm to his love. I cover my mouth with my hand as I move with him.
“You’re free now, Walker.”
He smiles, but he’s looking at Legion.
I reach out, and my blood drips down, mixing with his.
A shock wave blasts out from us, and I feel it all change. I feel a tug inside me. It’s beautiful and so powerful. I don’t know what we did, but I don’t look away from him.
I hear cries around me and look around, finding the Resistance pointing up to the sky. I look up, and all I can see are stars and a huge yellow moon.
“Look at it!”
“It’s beautiful.”
“The stars!”
The sounds of people fade away, they don’t matter.
I hold the hand of my brother, numb inside as I watch his life slowly drain away. He coughs and sprays blood into the air.
Walker smiles, but not at the moon or the stars, but at the body of his omega.
“One minute more,” Walker whispers with his last breath. Blood gurgles up, and he goes still. Utterly, eerily still.
I want to stay with him, but I stand up, feeling something happening, something changing. My power washes out of me like a concentrated wave that can’t be stopped or controlled. I groan as it runs through my body, spiraling out and out.
Alphas, omegas, and betas are changing designations, I realise, and the population is evening out. People with one designation will wake uptomorrow walking in the footsteps of another. I can sense it as clear as day. The balance is being restored. I don’t understand it, and I don’t really care. All I know is that it’s over.
It takes forever for the pull to stop, and then I kneel again beside the bodies of my brother and his lover.
I sit with him for several long minutes, then I turn to the Resistance, to Bear, who approaches. His clothes are bloodstained, and he’s sporting a gash down his right cheek, but his eyes are alight with victory.
“Burn the bodies,” I say listlessly.
He looks at me, but there is something infinitely sad written on his face.
“Kaida.”
His voice alarms me. I stand up, staring at him.
