Chapter Text
Skyhaven, once a defiant spire against the twilight. The air was thick with the bitter tang of scorched metal and earth. Ash drifted like snow, clinging to crushed concrete and the corpses that were scattered about like broken dolls along the halls of the crumbling building. The noise of battle had faded to a dull thrumming in his bones. Colonel Caleb had launched a full scale attack on Ever, decimating their forces and cornering the head of the corporation. Small explosions rocked the building from his troops that were fighting a distance away.
Yet, all that could cut through the ringing in his ears was her breath, a ragged, exhausted sound that made him grind his teeth. Her hands were blood soaked and gripping the weapon she should have. Her shadow stumbled, the broken window besides him, reflecting her haggarded appearance. MC forehead was slick with crimson but a stubborn defiance radiating from her even as she clutched a weapon far too heavy for her trembling hands.
“MC! You shouldn’t be here!” His voice tore from his throat. He wasn’t looking at her, his gaze was locked on the incoming envoy of armed soldiers Ever controlled.
“I told you to stay out of this and let me handle this mission alone!”
Yet, she moved closer, her boots crunching on the debris. “You also told me you’d protect me from everything but who will protect you?” Her voice trembled slightly but her eyes blazed with a fierce, impossible light that was too bright, too full of a love for him. “This time… we protect each other.”
Caleb’s chest constricted, a vise tightening around his heart. Not fear. Not even the white-hot fury that had been his constant companion since he saw her enter the battle. But that old, familiar, maddening ache. It was a desperate longing for this infuriating, impossible girl who dared to challenge gods with nothing but the fierce, unwavering grit of her spirit and the stubborn, foolish hope that bloomed even in the face of annihilation.
“You think your love makes you strong?” CEO Mervin Ayer’s voice snapped across the ravaged battlefield with a tone of cruel amusement. His guards surrounded him, guns drawn and pointed at them. He leveled his own weapon, the cold steel glinting in the dying light. “Let’s see what it’s worth when it’s torn from your hands.”
Caleb moved, a surge of power erupting within him. Wild, instinctive gravitational energy twisted the air as an invisible shield coalescing around them. But he was too slow, his reflexes dulled by the sheer weight of the catastrophe he made it through to get to the boss.
MC’s eyes widened as she moved first.
“No!”
A clumsy, desperate shove, fueled by pure, unadulterated terror, sent him sprawling against the jagged remains of a wall, the impact stealing the breath from his lungs.
Then, the deafening roar of gunfire ripped through the silence. Three brutal shots shattered the air.
Two crimson blossoms erupted violently on her back, blooming instantly and staining her uniform a horrifying, expanding shade of red. The third bullet whizzed past, catching in his belated gravitational wall a fraction of a second too late.
Her body convulsed, a violent shudder that ripped through Caleb as if his own flesh were tearing. Then she collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cleanly severed.
Caleb lunged with a strangled cry, catching her just before she slammed into the razor-edged rubble. The sheer impact of her weight in his arms was horrifyingly light, as if the life leaving her was making her hollow. Her breathing was a shallow, wet rattle, a fragile flutter like a bird with a shattered wing.
Blood. So much blood. It drenched his hands, hot and viscous, seeping through his clothes and sticking to his skin. The coppery stench filled his nostrils, suffocating him, drowning out the smell of smoke and ozone.
“No. No, no, no…!” His voice shattered, splintering into a raw, subhuman scream ripped from the marrow of his bones. It was a primal howl of despair that echoed the tearing of his very soul.
“Stay with me!” His hands shook uncontrollably, a frantic, wild plea as he clutched her against his chest, trying to press his palms over the wounds. But her blood just slipped through his fingers, mocking his strength. “I’ll fix this— I can fix this, just—”
He cradled her face, his thumbs frantically brushing against her blood-soaked cheek as if the simple act could anchor her to the earth. “Don’t close your eyes. MC, Please. Don’t—don’t leave me, little pipsqueak. Look at me.”
Her lashes fluttered, heavy and dark. Her eyes were wide, wet, and terribly unfocused as she looked up at him.
“You’re safe…” she whispered, a choked gurgle of crimson staining her lips. She tried to smile, but the corner of her mouth twitched weakly, failing to hold the shape. “That’s… good.”
“No!” Caleb’s breath hitched, a wild, clawing panic seizing his throat. “Why would you do that?! You always think your life means less than mine! It doesn't! It never did!”
Her weak, bloodstained fingers twitched, dragging across his sleeve until they found his hand. Her grip was fragile, a ghost of the strong, stubborn girl she had been only seconds ago, clinging to him like a dying ember in a storm. “Because yours… matters more to me. Skyhaven… needs you. They still… need you.”
“I need you!” The words tore from his throat like a ragged wound. His vision blurred, the edges of the ruined cityscape dissolving into a hazy, blood-tinged smear. His heart was being ripped apart, shredded into a million agonizing pieces inside his chest. "Don't do this to me. Please, please don't do this."
Her face crumpled into a silent wave of sorrow—not for herself, but for him. Always for him. She hated seeing him cry. She shook her head, a slow tremor wracking her ravaged body as a heavy breath rattled in her chest. “…It’s okay.” she breathed, the words barely a vibration against his skin.
His power, entirely untethered and wild now, twisted around them, warping the very fabric of gravity into violent, snapping knots. “Don’t talk like you’re leaving. Don’t you dare—”
“It’ll be… okay…”
“It won’t!” Caleb whimpered, a broken, childlike sob escaping him. He pressed his hands violently against her ribs, his knuckles turning white as he tried to physically force the life back into her body. “It won't. You can't leave me, MC. I don't know how to— how to be without you—"
“Promise me…” Her lips barely moved, her voice dropping into a terrifyingly quiet whisper. “Live. Even if… it hurts. Even if I’m not there.”
Caleb could only stare down at her, tears hot and fast streaming down his face, splashing onto her pale cheeks and washing away the blood. His mind screamed for him to agree, to offer her some semblance of peace, but the words choked him. He couldn’t promise existence in a world where she didn't breathe.
“I—” His voice broke on the shard of glass lodged in his throat.
Her smile returned one last time, it was faint, fragile, but unbearably loving. “Be happy… for me, ‘kay? My Caleb..."
Then she jerked once. A single, violent spasm ripped through her small frame, and then her hand slipped from his, dropping limply onto the rubble.
Her eyes remained open, staring blankly at the smoke-choked heavens. But the brilliant, fiercely stubborn light behind them disappeared, leaving her irises dull and hollow. Like a candle snuffed out by a cold wind.
Caleb froze, his lungs seizing. The wet, rattling sound of her breath was replaced by an absolute, suffocating silence. He waited. One second. Two. Hoping for another gasp, another twitch of her fingers, a sarcastic comment to break the nightmare but nothing came.
Against his chest, her skin began to lose its heat with a terrifying speed, the coldness of the rubble seeping beneath her seeped into her flesh.
No sound escaped his lips. There was only the sickening warmth of her blood cooling on his hands, and the gaping void where everything he had ever fought for had just been extinguished. Caleb shook, his mouth opened, whispering her name, pleading with her cooling body to come back to him. He couldn’t hear anything but the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears.
And the world shattered.
A hollow silence descended, a crushing weight in his chest where his heart used to beat. It was a void, an emptiness that stretched into infinity. He felt it before it manifested, instinctually wrapping around himself and her in a protective shield of gravity. Bullets flew in his direction but were repelled by his shield. A sickening scream emitted from the depths of his soul, his grief so raw and untamed reached out, and the universe answered in kind. A dark force twisted space and time into an unnatural, swirling vortex of black and purple.
It unraveled behind him, a silent scream in the fabric of the world. The building buckled unnaturally, the walls and ceiling folding in on themselves before being sucked into the massive black hole that was ever growing. Nothing escaped its orbit, pulling bodies, technology, weapons. Everything and anything unfortunate enough to be writhing its radius.
Then came the light, the building was gone. Then the air, the sound, the memory of Skyhaven’s skyline. That’s all that was left. The Void wasn’t a power anymore, it was hunger. A maw of absolute negation, gaping wider with every shattered piece of Caleb’s heart.
It consumed the entire city, without care, without prejudice. Everything in sight was sucked into the black void but him and MC. They were contained in an orb of pure gravity, elevated in the sky, untouched from the carnage that he unleashed on the city.
The world as far as he could see ended in silence. It didn’t with a scream, not with an explosion but with the absence of her.
Caleb evol gently set them down amongst the rubble of what remained of the city. He knelt in the ruins, her body cradled against his chest, his fingers tangled in the fabric of her armor, sticky with blood. The battlefield around them was a graveyard of twisted metal and shattered stone, the air thick with the scent of crisp freshness and iron. But none of it mattered. Not the distant wail of collapsing buildings, not the crackle of dying fires. Only the weight in his arms. The wrongness of it.
The Void pulsed behind him, silent now, sated. Dissipating into nothingness. But the pressure in his chest lingered, unrelenting. He rocked her gently, forehead pressed to hers. Her skin still held the echo of warmth. That was the worst part. The cruelest.
"Wake up." A command. A plea. "This isn’t funny, MC. Wake up." His breathing stuttered as he spoke.
But her lashes didn’t flutter. Her lips didn’t twitch into that stubborn smirk he loved. She just lay there, slack and lifeless, the ghost of her last smile still etched into her pale face.
Something in his chest split.
A sound tore from him. It wasn’t a scream nor a sob, but something raw and guttural, an animalistic noise of pure anguish. His grip tightened, his nails biting into his own palms.
"No. No, no, NO!"
Above them, the sky darkened. Not with clouds, not with smoke, but with something hungry.
The Void stirred above him again.
It uncoiled from the pit of his rage, a living thing, ravenous and wild. He felt it in his teeth, in the marrow of his bones. That power he’d always kept leashed, now snapping free. Gravity twisted the air around him once more. The rubble at his feet lifted, hovering like debris caught in a tidal wave.
‘What does it matter now? What was it all for…?’ Ever was dust. Skyhaven was already her tomb. He would make it his final resting place as well. He would be with her, even in death.
‘Let it take everything.’
He felt nothing but earth shattering sorrow, heard nothing but the phantom echo of her gentle voice calling to him. The cold seep of death that clung to her body was too much for him to bear.
“If this is the cost of love… then let the void consume it all.” As he said his last words, the void lowered a distance from him.
In the silent aftermath, amidst the swirling chaos of what remained, a flicker of something captured his gaze. Not of light, but of form, impossibly solid against the backdrop of nothingness.
Caleb’s breath stalled. The Void recoiled like a beaten dog, disappearing completely.
“No...”
There she stood. Alive. His MC.
His head snapped up, his grief-stricken gaze locking onto the impossible figure standing in the desolate expanse. She stood as if born of the void itself, untouched by the annihilation. And in her face… he saw her. Not her, not exactly. But the echo was undeniable, a cruel, breathtaking twist of fate in the heart of his despair. A jolt of disbelief, sharp and disorienting, pierced through the numbing grief.
She wasn’t as he’d last seen her… broken, bleeding, cold to the touch. No. She was whole. Staring at the wasteland around them with wide, disbelieving eyes. The ruins of Skyhaven stretched behind her, half-consumed by the jagged edges where his power had stopped. As if the Void itself had choked on her existence.
Her gaze found him.
‘MC…? No… it’s not possible.’
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You stood amidst the fractured remnants of Skyhaven, your body aching, a roadmap of bruises blossoming on your skin from the force of the blast. One moment, laughter had echoed around you as you walked with friends, the vibrant energy of the city thrumming beneath your feet. The next, a cataclysm. Silence. Ruin. An emptiness so profound it swallowed sound. Your ears still rang, your thoughts a jumbled mess of confusion and terror. ‘Where are they? What happened?’ And then your eyes met his.
‘Mina? Liam?’ Your gaze, wild with panic. You clawed at the ruins beneath yourself , a desperate, futile search for her friends, for something familiar, for anyone. But there were no signs of life… anywhere. Amongst the debris, the thick cloud of dust that obstructed your view before confronting the fact that you were all alone.
‘How could this even be possible?’ Tears welled up in your eyes, struggling to come to terms with the very real possibility that they might actually be dead. You sat down on the uncomfortable ground, pulling your scraped up legs to your chest and cried, feeling completely helpless.
That’s when you heard it. The most heart wrenching wail that startled you out of the self pitiable state. You stood up on shaky legs, almost toppling over from the unstable foundation.
Your head whipped back and forth, listening carefully and straining your stinging eyes to try and find the person. You believe that whoever shouted that way must be injured or be with someone who was injured. ‘I might be able to help.’ Unfortunately, you weren’t a doctor but you’ve been EMS trained and could possibly offer assistance.
After a moment, your eyes caught a glimpse of a shadow and she walked forward, determination shining in your glossy stare. Then, through the haze of dust and disbelief, you saw him.
He sat amidst the wreckage, a solitary figure cradling a still form. Even from this distance, the raw, palpable grief radiating from him was a physical force, a wave of despair washing over you. But it was his face that made her pause. It was like staring at a ghost, a flicker of a half-forgotten dream. A shiver of unease crawling down your spine, something in your gut told you to steer clear of him.
‘He doesn’t look hurt? But he looks so… broken.’
The man simply stood there, amidst the devastation he seemed to embody, his shadowed gaze locking onto yours with an intensity that stole your breath. His eyes were hollowed, a deep violet haunted by a pain that seemed to mirror the utter destruction surrounding you. For a moment, you were trapped in his gaze, a silent, desperate question hanging in the dust-choked air between you. ‘Why is he looking at me like that? Why does he look like he’s seen a ghost?’
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Caleb’s arms tightened around MC’s stiff, lifeless body, like a desperate need to anchor him to reality. ‘She’s gone. She’s really gone. I’m seeing things.’ He couldn’t let go. Not yet. This was all that remained of his world, the tangible proof that she had existed, that their love had been real. ‘My MC. My light.’
But his gaze kept drifting back to the figure standing silently amidst the ruins. The echo. The impossible resemblance. His mind struggled to reconcile the horrific reality of his loss with this sudden, inexplicable appearance of this doppelganger.
‘How? How can someone look so much like her? On the very edge of oblivion… I was ready to—’ He shakes his head. It felt like a cruel jest, a phantom conjured by his shattered psyche. ‘Is this a trick? Is my mind finally broken?’ He was sure of it. Maybe it was his mind trying to comfort him in his last moments
He stood up amidst the devastation, cradling a lifeless figure, his eyes burning with a raw intensity that seemed to pierce right through you. There was a wildness in his gaze, a desperate hunger that sent shivers down your spine.
Caleb’s mind, for a fleeting moment, wrestled with the impossibility of the situation. The resemblance was too perfect, too uncanny. ‘It’s her face. Her eye color.’ But deep down, a sliver of lucidity remained. ‘No. Her warmth is gone. Her light… when she looks at me…’ He knew. He knew this wasn’t MC, Mc’s body was in his arms. This stranger held a different stillness, an unfamiliar fear directed at him that felt wrong. He couldn’t understand why he felt that way, a stranger shouldn’t matter.
But the promise he left unanswered, the desperate vow to live, to somehow find happiness even in the face of this soul crushing loss… it twisted within him. He looked down at MC in his arms, shedding a few more tears from his red rimmed eyes.
‘You told me to live. To be happy.’ This was a sign. A second chance, however warped, however impossible. His broken mind latched onto the idea with a terrifying certainty. ‘I can’t do that without you. I won’t do that without you.’ He wouldn’t let this echo disappear. This was a twisted, cruel gift. A lifeline in the abyss. He was unworthy but he was going to take it.
With one last, lingering look at the still face in his arms, he bid a silent farewell to the love he’d lost. ‘Goodbye, my love. I tried.’ Caleb said before a flicker of something cold and resolute hardened his gaze. He gently laid MC’s body amidst the debris, a final resting place in the world he had destroyed in her name.
Then his eyes locked onto you, and he moved. The raw power that had just annihilated a city now propelled him towards you like a predator drawn to its prey. ‘She’ll be mine now. My last chance.’
As Caleb moved, the silence of the void that was no longer there seemed to press in on you, amplifying the sound of his approach.The almost imperceptible shift in the debris around him as his evol smoothly propelled him forward. Each movement was deliberate, his intense gaze never leaving yours.
‘She looks so much like her. It’s… almost exact. Just… softer. Curvier.’ His grief momentarily subsided, replaced by a strange sense of awe and a familiar possessiveness. This wasn't MC, but the resemblance was a balm to his ravaged soul, and your… plumpness… was undeniably appealing as you are filled out in all the right places.
You stood frozen, your heart pounding against your ribs, a frantic drumbeat in the echoing silence. He was coming closer. The raw power that radiated from him was palpable, a silent threat in the emptiness. Your mind raced, desperately trying to make sense of the horrifying events and this terrifying stranger.
“S-stay back. Please, just stay back.”
Caleb stopped a few feet away, the distance feeling both too far and suffocating. His hollow eyes, still shadowed with grief but now overlaid with a strange light of approval, scanned your face and your body. ‘Not MC. Different. But… exquisite.’ He found himself appreciating the subtle curves that MC hadn't possessed.
"Who are you?" His voice was rough from yelling but holding an air of curiosity. "What's your name?"
You could only stare up at him, your breath caught in your throat. Shock had stolen your voice. He was impressive in stature, powerful, and the grief clinging to him was almost a tangible force. Your eyes darted around the wasteland, a desperate plea for escape in a place where there was none.
With a subtle flex of his power, Caleb lifted you effortlessly into the air, drawing you towards his body. You gasped, your feet dangling in the emptiness. He wrapped a strong arm around your waist, his grip firm. With his other hand, he tilted your chin up, forcing you to meet his gaze.
‘So like her. The same fire… almost. And this softness…’ He marveled at the uncanny resemblance, the delicate curve of your jaw, the wide, fearful eyes that mirrored MC's in their shape but held a different kind of vulnerability. His thumb brushed lightly against your cheek. ‘Perfect.’
Panic finally broke through your shock. You struggled in his hold, pressing your hands against his chest, trying to create distance, but his grip was like steel. He chuckled, a low, humorless sound. ‘So much weaker than her.’ A flicker of disdain crossed his features, quickly replaced by a possessive gleam. ‘No matter. She’s mine now.’
Suddenly, a high-pitched, chilling screech echoed in the distance, cutting through the silence of the void. You flinched violently, your eyes widening with a fresh wave of terror. The sound was alien, predatory.
Caleb, initially lost in his appraisal of you, barely registered the sound. His focus was solely on the woman in his arms. But then, he saw your reaction, the raw terror that eclipsed even your terror of him.
Another screech, closer this time, sent a tremor through the debris.
‘Wanderers.’ A cold realization dawned on Caleb. Skyhaven or what used to be Skyhaven was defenseless. Those monsters drawn to the aftermath of such immense power would be filtering in with no fleet to keep them in check. He looked down at you, a cruel calculation in his eyes.
"Listen to me." He said, his voice low and urgent. "Out here, you‘re defenseless. Those things will tear you apart." He gestured vaguely into the echoing emptiness. "Come with me. Be mine. And I'll protect you." His gaze hardened.
"Refuse, and I leave you here. Your choice."
Your mind reeled. The horrifying creatures, the desolate void, and the insane man holding you captive. It wasn't a choice at all. Survival screamed within you.
"I… I’ll go with you." Your voice trembled, barely a whisper.
"Say it properly." Caleb ordered, his grip tightening slightly. "If you want my help. Say, 'I choose you, Gege.'"
You choked out the words, your voice trembling with a mixture of terror and a desperate will to survive. "I... I choose you... Gege." The unfamiliar title felt foreign on your tongue, a surrender to the terrifying reality of your situation.
A genuine smile, the first he'd worn all day stretched across Caleb's face. It was a chilling sight, devoid of warmth, reminiscent of a predator satisfied with its claim. ‘Her voice... it’s softer than MC's. Almost too sweet.’ He found himself oddly pleased by the delicate sound, a strange counterpoint to her fuller figure. ‘It suits her.’
“Good girl. Gege will take good care of you now.” He said, praising you before reaching to pat your head affectionately.
‘This isn’t her. Not truly.’ A small voice inside his head reminded him. But you wore her face, her eyes, her image too closely. And for Caleb, after having his heart shatter into a million pieces and spiraling, maybe that was enough.
Effortlessly, he scooped you up into his arms, lifting you off the rubble as if you weighed nothing at all. The raw power that emanated from him hummed along your skin as he used his evol to propel you both upwards, soaring high above the ravaged landscape. Unbeknownst to you, he’d used his power to carry the body of the woman he was cradling moments before, trailing after you both as you ascended. The distant screeches of the wanderers faded below, a terrifying threat temporarily negated by your forced compliance.