S5, E10 | My Tears are Becoming a Sea

Series Finale

“Do you think they found cover in time?” a woman wonders aloud, spinning around in her chair to face a man that stands behind her, one arm crossed over his chest whilst his other is lifted toward his face, allowing his knuckle to be gently bitten anxiously. “Velma, I’ve got no idea” the light-skinned man replies, letting his fingers fall from his mouth as he stares into the monitor that his acquaintance sits at, “all I know is that they shouldn’t have waited so long to find somewhere to settle.”

“Leon, you know how Jay and Sidney operate” Velma retorts, fully turning her seat to face the man, who leans against the desk on the opposite side of the room from her. “Yeah, yeah... They push the boundaries. I don’t expect them to change their ways- I’ve heard it a million times before” Leon responds, stepping away from the desk and approaching a wall of computer towers in the corner.

“Just because they don’t play things safe like they should doesn’t mean that it’s the right approach to take...” the man continues, clearly displeased with the worrying situation they find themselves in, “...especially not so far away from home.”

Looking toward the ground with a frown, Velma sits quietly for a moment before leaving her seat, approaching the man that fiddles with various cables at the room’s side, his hands turning at dials and adjusting antennas wherever possible. “Look, there are some things in life that you just have to work around. The nature of the people that you associate with is one of those things” she explains, resting her hand on the man’s shoulder, “you can’t argue they haven’t made it through worse.”

Ceasing his various manoeuvring of the radio equipment that stands stacked atop each other directly in front of him, Leon takes the woman’s words into her mind and feels them leave his stomach sickly, knotting his intestines and leaving him pained. “You never hear the shot that brings you down, V’” he responds, wishing not to let the past dictate his future assertions, “surviving a tornado wouldn’t mean you’d stand around doing nothing the next time one comes around.”

“No, but in that same metaphor- knowing that they’ve survived the worst already lets us know they’re at least aware of what to do this time” Velma rebukes, tightening her grasp on the man’s shoulder whilst staring at him with eyes of reassurance, “so, for heaven’s sake, just try to have a little bit of-”

“Anybody there!?” a man’s voice calls out through the radio, immediately sending the two people who’d been waiting for it back to their initial stations. “Velly!? Leon!?” the voice persists, speaking over the sound of heavy rainfall whilst waiting for an answer. “Jay! Jay! We’re here!” Velma hurriedly exclaims, firmly pressing her thumb into the bright, red button at the base of her microphone whilst hastily throwing her headset on, “what happened!? Are you guys safe!?”

“Yes! Yes! Hahaha!” Jay excitedly calls back, pausing to take a deep sigh of relief as he holds his head whilst staring toward the sky, “we made it to an apartment complex a short way out from the city just before the rain started coming down!” Nodding to himself, Leon keeps to mute whilst his friend follows through with the line of dialogue, trying to keep the steady stream of information flowing whenever the opportunity arises.

“Here, let me see that” the woman beside the thrilled wanderer remarks, handing off a remote control she’d wielded before placing her ear to the inner part of her hand phone. “Hey Velly, it’s Sidney” she greets, stepping closer to the nearby window and looking out at a desolate, sand-covered road just a short distance away whilst speaking, “don’t worry about us, we’re both safe.”

“Good! Good!” Velma responds, unable to hold back the smile that spreads across her face, “what about the drone? Did you get anywhere close to the city before the storm hit?” Yet to reply in words, Sidney begins shaking her head in refusal whilst looking toward the man in her company, his eyes staring daggers into the video screen that’s built into the centre of the controller.

“No, but we did finally get that metal shield you’d sent it with bolted on. We’re testing it out right now, and so far- the drone’s making it through the storm just fine” she finally answers in words, having yet to see anything of note before handing off the machine’s ownership. “Alright, did you get anything worth talking about?” Velma questions, receiving her answer whilst the woman on the other end of the line joins her friend at his behest, sharing a look at the screen he wields.

“Actually, we haven’t really captured anything... But that’s kind of the thing worth talking about” Sidney responds, quietly waving her finger in a multitude of directions toward Jay before stepping away, gesturing for him to follow through on some action. “The people with the guns and the planes and stuff left the city” she carries on, returning to the window she’d recently stepped aside from, “I don’t know why, but they started running for the hills in unison just before sunset.”

“Why?” Velma immediately questions, continuing to stare blankly at the speaker her handset is set up to, focusing on the source in which her friend’s voice emanates. “We’re not sure, but we saw all the planes and helicopters hurry off. The power went out a while ago- maybe an hour or two- and that boat on the coastline left too” Sidney doubles down, “you said there was supposed to be a ton of people here, but even before the rain started... There’s no one here.”

“Of course there wouldn’t be, the storm was coming in” Velma replies, trying to offer an alternative to the woman’s conclusion, only for it to find an immediate challenge. “I was flying the drone past windows of the skyscrapers, of the little suburban homes, of cars... whatever there was” Sidney explains, shaking her head whilst coming up without much of an alternative way of viewing the situation, “there’s no one in the cars, in the homes, in the shops... nowhere.”

“That can’t be possible! You just said you could see lights all over the place yesterday!” Velma retorts, shaking her head whilst failing to comprehend such a rapid change, “what the hell happened!?”

“I’m trying to tell you that we’re not sure either” Sidney clarifies, just as baffled as the woman on the other end of the line is, “we’ve only found one thing that even remotely shows any sign of life, and Jay just spotted it a few minutes ago. I had him send you a screenshot.”

Hurrying to the empty seat beside Velma, Leon sets his fingers upon the keyboard to a second computer and quickly moves from one tab to another, the gentle redirection of the mouse allowing him to catch the file that their allies had sent them. “What the hell is that?” the communicating lady questions, staring at the same photograph as the only other person she shares the room with.

“Mount Cedars-Sinai Medical Center” Leon whispers, reading out the lights in the distance of the photograph whilst his friend watches on, trying to explain the oddity just as he does. “If you don’t want us to, just say so- but Jay and I are sending the drone to that building as we speak” Sidney remarks, suddenly feeling her friend nudge at her elbow as the man on the other end of the line grants her permission to continue with the mission.

“What?” Sidney asks, looking back into the controller’s screen whilst Jay continues to guide the drone, having captured something else of interest with the intent on following it. “Hold on, Jay’s following something” the woman speaks to those back home, describing the scene as best she can to usher them along the journey with her, “I think he... I think... I think he’s following a car.”

Looking back to each other, the pair of computer-stationed figures nod to each other without uttering a word, pulling apart and moving their separate ways. “Jay, Sidney- whatever you do... Do not lose sight of that car!” Velma warns, taking over full operation over the control centre as her friend makes for the room’s exit, his hand grasping the handle of a metal door and pushing it outward to reveal a well-lit building that fully surrounds him, surviving the night sky with lamps and lanterns.

Weighing the information that they’ve come into, Leon’s fingers wrap around the top of a railing that overlooks a baseball diamond, its dirt track surrounded by amateur construction that occupies every stretch of what had once served as the in and out fields. Sketched along the scoreboard at the base of a towering, green wall, the words “Athens of America” are scrawled in white paint, the view one that appears pleasant to the man, who makes for a nearby tunnel with a sign over its head.

“Thank you for visiting Fenway Park.”

= Dire is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

Grasping the steering wheel with a firm and unrelenting squeeze, Jaime focuses on the asphalt road that she navigates whilst trying to ignore the acidic waters that run down her windshield. Having been seared away and greatly worn down, the sedan’s wipers do little to aid the chancellor’s sights, but the small amount of good they do perform at least allows the woman to make it to her destination in one piece.

Hoping for the best, Jaime leaves the truck running and steps beyond the door with the help of an umbrella, its cloth quickly being eaten away by the vicious weather conditions, but affording her enough time to rush to the hospital’s front entrance with minimal burns. Though she steps through the building’s entrance, the chancellor’s ears take toward the air just a few yards behind her, catching the gentle sound of whirring as it draws nearer.

With a squint, the woman looks through the dense pellets of rainfall to catch a large, flying object drawing closer to her, coming to a curious stop whilst still in the midst of the storm. As if staring each other down, Jaime and the metal-reinforced drone refuse to move from their positions, the pair eventually coming eye-to-eye with the other with only five yards between them.

“If you’re with the NDF... You better take your shot at me now while you have it” Jaime shouts with confidence, continuing to look into the camera lens without an ounce of fear in her guise. For a few additional seconds, their unwavering staring contest comes to an end when the machine concedes, pulling back into the rain before flying off into the distance, disappearing from the chancellor’s line of sight and continuing on with its uncertain travels.

Though she doesn’t know what to make of the robot’s appearance, Jaime’s mind takes back to her reason for her own adventure too quickly for her to concern herself with it, the rest of her body following suit with the half that had already entered the building.

Having begun her journey toward the building with haste, Jaime’s roll slows once she finds herself within its confines, aware that the only way she leaves it alive is with blood on her hands. Inspecting her surroundings for a brief moment, the chancellor finds an odd aura about the place, as the wing she enters- which had once served as an emergency room- remains entrenched within the darkness despite the building’s continued use of the electricity.

“The sensors just went off at the front of the building” Julia’s voice remarks through the public address system, immediately catching the ear of her long-awaited foe, “unless a fly just zipped by, or unless another poor soul missed the chance to get out of the danger zone in time- I believe we have a chancellor amidst our company.”

Wanting to speak back, Jaime recognises that her voice will not be received through the building’s speaker, holding her aggressions back in favour of letting her continued silence afford her room to remain discreet. “I’m glad you saw the sign out front, though. I prefer the layout of this battleground over wherever else we could have this take place” Julia continues, toying with her adversary whilst the opportunity affords itself.

“Think about all of the memories we’ve shared in this building, Jaime” the doctor carries on, unsure of where her enemy is within the building, but knowing very well how long she has to speak freely at minimum. Ignoring the words as best as she can, the chancellor continues on from one end of the room and to the next, following the signs that adorn each wall in search of the rooms that would make the most sense to find her nemesis in.

“There was that time you let Ryan escape and high-tail his way into Lancaster... That was fun” Julia remarks, serenading the chancellor’s ears with the various displeasing recollections that stand at her disposal. Though she follows her gut’s instinct by venturing toward the end of the hospital she’d most-anticipated the doctor’s presence to be in, Jaime returns to the room in which she bode a farewell to her fiance, finding it not only empty, but stripped of bedsheets and machinery.

In place of the hospital equipment and curtains, only a bed remains at the room’s centre, its surface void of even the thinnest pillow or coverings, instead remaining as naked and impersonal as the day it’d been delivered to the building. “Another fun memory would’ve been when we struck a deal to make sure your people were fed... It’s actually kind of ironic now” Julia carries on, visibly displeased with the recollection at hand, “it seems like neither of us could keep them fat and happy, huh?”

Flaring her nostrils, Jaime carries on through the wing, stepping through automatic doors that her purposefully locked themselves open when the power had died throughout the building, quite fittingly leaving not a single obstruction to hold the chancellors back from each other’s wrath.

“Neither of those compare to the one we’re both thinking of, though” Julia persists, unsure of whether or not her efforts are succeeding in digging their way into her enemy’s skin, but keen on continuing to prod at the woman with whatever chance she can get. Though she fears not where the woman is or what kind of fight she will put up when found, Jaime seethes at the knowledge that her fiance’s name is within seconds from leaving the tongue of the serpent she chases.

“I don’t know if this will help you sleep at... Well, technically you won’t get the chance to sleep at night, but maybe knowing this will set your mind at ease for a little bit” Julia explains, forced to correct herself amidst her pause, “for a while there, I had pretty heavy second doubts about killing Jordan.”

As her lip curls, Jaime pushes in whichever doors she can’t see through partially with enough force to let out a little bit of aggression, but not enough to give her positioning away. “I know I was really keen on keeping to the plan, but there was a part of me that questioned whether or not he had to die to put me in any position of power” Julia continues on, leaning one arm against her desk whilst the other holds down upon the microphone’s red button.

“I really didn’t mind him. I tried to convince myself that I could just keep sedating him, but I just couldn’t make sense of it” the doctor confesses, her eyes wandering from one side of the room to another, “I needed you at your weakest. I needed you to be vulnerable and willing to doubt anyone if I was going to not only get inside your inner circle, but usurp all others from it... Just like I usurped you.”

Growing more impatient with every door that she opens to no success, Jaime begins aimlessly navigating the corridors of the hospital whilst the doctor carries on, trying to ignore the voice that earns the same reaction from her as nails dragging against the surface of a chalkboard. “I never thought you would become as gullible and weak as you did. It honestly came as a surprise to me how easy the process was” Julia admits, letting out a light chuckle, “I straight-up broke you.”

Though she’d not memorised the building’s layout in great detail, Jaime finds herself in a hallway that she finds familiar, curiously finding the sight of its entrance being covered up with tarp. “Of course, it turned out to be good for nothing since you ousted me all the same with a disappointing amount of ease, but the pleasure of knowing that remains intact” Julia proceeds, having long-since reached the point in which she’d expected her adversary to draw close.

With ease, Jaime steps through the opening in the corridor’s obstruction and begins walking past the various doors that line its immediate surroundings, taking interest in only one destination in particular. “I already told you once that you were right about us not being friends. We’re enemies- through and through” Julia continues, casually leaning into her desk with a dismissive smirk, “and until I take my last breath, I will revel in knowing that I was what brought down-”

Falling silent at the instant the ground shakes, Julia braces for cover as the door to her brother’s office fires inward, caved in by the shoulder tackle of the enraged chancellor. Having failed to take notice of any footsteps beyond the room’s entry, the doctor hurries out of her chair and kicks the seat backward, attempting to run around the opposite end of the table from the one in which her enemy advances.

Sprinting into action, Jaime leaps onto one side of the desk and runs through the air that separates her from the woman who’d left her as a soul waiting for the sweet relief of death, wrapping her arms around the doctor and taking her to the ground alongside her. Kicking and grunting, Julia tries to fight off her aggressor to little use, her main goal of keeping the chancellor from mounting her quickly falling futile.

With one strike after another, Jaime beats upon her archenemy without the intention of stopping, raining one punch to the side of the woman’s face with equal satisfaction to the last. Getting carried away, the chancellor’s distinct pleasure in the vicious assault opens a shot for the vindictive opportunist to strike upon, laying in three good shots to the woman’s side and preventing any further attack for enough time to push her assailant away.

Grabbing at her ribs, Jaime rolls onto the ground and stares at the ceiling for a moment, grimacing as she winces in pain before hurrying back into action, lifting herself back to two feet as her nemesis scurries away. Trying to get her wits about her once more, Julia hurries out of the office and crashes into the wall immediately outside of it, eyes taking toward the direction in which the chancellor had closed in on her from.

Not too far behind, Jaime retains enough fight to give her adversary chase, following her down one corridor after another and around corner after corner, unsure of where their journey is meant to take them, but refusing to stop until one of them definitively topples the other. Running without knowing for sure where she wants to end up, Julia recognises that no amount of her retreat had gone without an equal push, the distance between herself and her foe having grown no further than it started.

Seeing little other choice, Julia takes a pause as she enters the building’s surgical ward, surveying the area before finding one door in particular that catches her eye. Gaining ground, Jaime spills out into the larger wing not too long after, making it just in time to find the door the soul she chases after just nearly closing shut.

With the acoustics of a nuclear war bunker, Jaime enters a cramped and lengthy stairwell, its each side encased within a layer of concrete thick enough to reverberate sound back in on itself. Though her ears can capture the noise of footsteps being taken, the chancellor fails to discern which direction they’re headed. Approaching the bannister closest to the winding passageway’s centre, a brief glance upward and downward fails to produce much of a sight to go off of.

Aware that her assailant has been put off by the echo, Julia stays close to the side of the steps where the wall is, preventing her adversary from figuring out her position through the use of her sight. Trying to conceal her every breath as best as she can, the doctor makes use of her familiarity with the structure to gain enough breathing room to feel comfortable with her chances of victory.

“Up, up, and away, chancellor!” Julia mocks, playing riddles with her pursuer to guide her in the right direction, finally advancing to the highest level of the stairwell and placing her hand against the crash bar of the nearest door. Shaking her head with displeasure, Jaime frees her mind of the games that her enemy attempts to play, keeping herself focused on ascending each step and making good on her vow to finish what she’d allowed to start.

With a grin, the scheming doctor stares at the door and pushes it open, licking her lips and laughing as she steps through. Aware of the dangers that lie ahead in unfamiliar territory, Jaime fails to find the fear within the unknown, motivated by the desire to avenge her fiance and make right by the strife that has seen her forced to part with the ones she loves most, leaving her alone in the republic she’d founded with only the one she looks to kill sharing the abandoned city.

Rounding the final corner, Jaime’s sights set upon the door her enemy had hurried through, unsure of what lies on the other side other than the woman who she knows is already in dire straits. Bracing for impact, the chancellor hurries past the final step from the top and slams her palm into the door’s crash bar, spilling out into the open and discovering a night sky clear of clouds and filled with stars, the acidic droplets that had tainted her republic having now moved past.

“How do you like this!?” Julia exclaims, emerging from behind the chancellor with a led pipe in her hand, swinging it through the air like a baseball bat and bringing it down upon the woman’s back. Lifting her head toward the sky as the pain comes over her, Jaime’s hands clenched into fists as she falls to her knees, the agonising sensation of soreness that immediately drives through her back in waves instantly falling out of favour to the burning sting that befalls the flesh of her kneecaps.

Screaming in pain, Jaime lunges forward and back onto her feet against all odds, kicking at the ground as the denim fabric of her pants is burned away, revealing the seared flesh on her knees from the potent water that covers the ground she inhabits. “Not too well, I see” Julia remarks with a smile, the molar on the left side of her face broken and blood flying with every strand of spit she hurls through the air with each word.

Licking her chops, Julia pulls her hands back and prepares to take a second swing with her weapon, only to be caught by surprise when the weight of her adversary is thrown against her sternum. With the same guttural agony, the doctor howls in pain as her back is singed against the soggy ground, kicking and screaming as she fights to get up whilst Jaime collects herself, evening the score with nothing left to hold them back.

“You clever little bitch!” Julia groans, stammering backward before finally regaining her balance, holding enough wherewithal to compliment her hated adversary, “I really thought I had you dead to rights there, damnit!” Balling her hands into fists, Jaime steps forward, shaking off the pain as Julia maintains a safe distance, looking for every advantage she can to avoid a fist fight with the chancellor.

“I shouldn’t really have expected anything less from you” Julia quips, chuckling with amusement at the woman’s progression, unable to do much more than look for a way of getting her enemy off balance. “Stop talking and fight me” Jaime responds, not needing to utter a word more than she already has, intent set on putting an end to their struggles once and for all.

“You sure you wanna kill me so soon?” Julia questions aloud, quickly leaping back from one of the chancellor’s attempted swings, the fist flying by her much more closely than she’s comfortable with. “What happens when the morning comes and you get a good look at that missile headed for home, huh!?” the doctor continues, ducking another swipe before hurrying in a different direction, trying to keep the ground between them covered, “do you really wanna die all alone?”

“You killed my fiance, nearly killed Chevy and Kayla, and would’ve killed me if I’d have given you the chance” Jaime calmly retorts, nodding to herself as she continues to step forward, knowing the doctor has nowhere left to go, “if anything, you don’t deserve as quick of a death as you’re getting... I’d be really appreciative of that missile if I were you and just accept what’s coming.”

“If you’re going to get the privilege of killing me yourself, I’m going to make you work for it” Julia rebukes, assuring the woman that there will be no easy conclusion to this fight. With their words having been shared, the women stare down from each other before the sound of whirring in the air catches their collective attention, both sets of eyes taking to the side of the building they stand closest to, where the metal-shielded drone rises over the edge, affording the women an audience.

Squinting with confusion, Jaime stares at the lens for a moment longer than the doctor, its appearance enough of a distraction to let her foe capitalise on her oversight. Running forward, Julia drives her shoulder into Jaime’s stomach and begins pushing the woman backward, unable to take the woman off of her feet, but leaving her no room to stop the push back.

Standing three feet above the level they occupy, the brick wall that marks the edge of the building’s rooftop catches Jaime and prevents its owner from driving her back any further. Wrapping her arm around the doctor’s neck, the chancellor holds her enemy in place and begins swinging fists into the woman’s back, eventually forcing her to step back out of self-preservation.

Though in a better position than she’d started, Jaime still finds herself backed into a place she has no choice but to fight from, allowing the doctor to take advantage of the short ground to work with. Running into the chancellor’s body, Julia begins swinging fists at her opponent’s head before being shoved away, her offence not yet stalling as she closes the distance once more.

Eating one punch after another, Jaime retains enough sound mind to pull her head back and drive a fist forward, hitting the doctor on the chin and forcing her to take two steps back. Dazed and confused, Julia watches the chancellor draw closer toward her before slapping the woman across the face, the effect failing to buy her the time it was intended to.

Brushing off the strike, Jaime eats it with ease and continues marching forward, sending another jab the doctor’s way before shoving her back for a second time, the foggy sights that fill Julia’s vision in the moment preventing her from easily regrouping. Hovering overhead with enough of a perspective to catch the entire brawl, the drone continues to spectate the attack whilst lightning fires off in the distance, its sound leaving traces of the republic’s final storm to be followed.

Having begun to forget about the drone’s presence as is, Jaime continues her onslaught, stepping forward with one shot after another as her eagerness to push forward grants her the ability to brush off whatever defence the doctor attempts to muster. With her lip fattened, face swelling, and left eye seeing stars, Julia begins to take on the wear and tear of the brawl in a way that leaves her helpless to make a comeback.

Only able to cover the ground that’s available to her, Julia’s back soon finds itself in a similar position to that in which the chancellor had waged war away from, pushed against the brick wall that separates her from ten-plus story drop to the earth below. “This is for Chevy!” Jaime exclaims, feeling the height of the skirmish pass on as it begins its descent toward the finale, adding extra emphasis to her next swing in the name of her trusted right hand man.

Cocking back, Julia’s head swings back in the direction of the republic’s capitol before Jaime pauses, continuing to pull back further with each strike whilst holding the doctor by her collar with the opposite hand, holding her up and making sure to connect with every last blow. “This is for Kayla!” the chancellor howls again, delivering a second brutal blow to her rival’s face, quickly pulling back again with further declaration, “this is for the child you stole from their lives!”

For a third time, the chancellor’s fist drives into the side of Julia’s face, its weight so strong that it dazes the doctor beyond the point of defence, shattering her orbital bone and rendering her nearly unconscious. Though she wishes to leave the doctor conscious enough to experience every last sensation in her life, Jaime loses all control with the sight of the bloodied and mangled antagonist, finally able to do as she’s been waiting so long to.

“This is for my mother!” Jaime cries, swinging again before quickly standing the doctor upright, “this is for my sister!” Taking the fifth punch dealt to her in succession, Julia struggles to retain consciousness as her assailant pauses once more, taking longer to deliver this strike than she had on the other occasions. Pulling her hand back and looking at her own bloodied knuckles, the persevering and accomplished survivor revels in the moment before looking back toward the professional.

“This is for me” the chancellor calmly says, watching Julia stir with a regained composure, noticing the woman’s retained consciousness before spitting blood in her oppressor’s face, holding back any punches in favour of delivering the final blow in literal fashion. “And this...” Jaime declares, grabbing her adversary by the neck and pushing her onto the brick wall’s ledge, forcing the woman to stare at the ground she now hovers over with nothing to break her fall.

Her eyes widened and stare intense, Jaime aims the doctor’s face toward the ground for a few seconds before forcing her sights back toward the chancellor. “This...” the victorious survivor proclaims, pausing as Julia looks her in the eyes, the former chancellor helpless to defend herself and bound by the hand of her enemy, offered a recollection of the eldest Morris daughter’s own on her path to the afterlife, “...this is for Jordan.”

With a leisurely shove, Jaime pulls her hand back and watches Julia topple over the edge without a word, silenced by her brutality until only the faint sound of a body crashing against the pavement below and bursting like a watermelon is left of the villainous devil. As if on command, the chancellor’s strands of hair are blown back by a calm and steady breeze, the winds of change having not only rung without warning bells, but ushering in the final change of the guard for the republic to see.

With her eyes staring into the distance, Jaime looks into the starry night with a blank visage, the cooling breeze affording her a moment of clarity. Holding her side, the chancellor collects her breath before turning toward her right, looking up at the drone that had caught every last second of the battle on both video and audio, paying no care for whomever may be watching on from beyond the lens.

With her free hand, Jaime presents the machine with only her middle finger, flipping it off for the final few seconds that it roams the area before watching it drift off into the night, seemingly returning to where it’d come from and leaving the chancellor alone with her nation.

|

As the sun rises on the republic’s final day, Jaime descends the way she’d entered the hospital and makes a brief stop at the office where her fight had begun, snatching the unopened bottle of wine from atop the desk before carrying on with her day. Lifting just above the horizon, the nation’s final sunrise is spent by the chancellor walking past the pile of fragmented bone, splattered blood and loosened skin that Julia’s corpse now presents as, paying it little more than a smile.

Stepping back into the driver’s seat of her truck, the chancellor calmly reclaims ownership of the wheel and pulls out of the driveway, leaving behind Mount Cedars-Sinai for the same fate that awaits her and the rest of her kingdom. With blue skies and not a single cloud to disturb the rising sun, Jaime brings her drive to a slow and casual stop outside of familiar territory, leaving the vehicle running and the door to its driver’s side open as she abandons it.

Though its debris has been left to rot beneath the weight of the Californian elements, the place in which the chancellor’s hillside mansion had once stood remains intact, the walkway that leads around it being taken by the woman who intends to spend her final moments where she belongs- at home.

Descending the stairs to her algae-filled pool, Jaime approaches the furthest balcony from her residence and easily opens her bottle of wine, lifting its rim to her lips as she takes in her final sunrise. “Ahhh” she sighs with satisfaction, leaning against the glass railing whilst taking in the sights of the Angelino Republic’s skyline, staring past the palm trees that line the hill she stands atop and out toward the charred remnants of the central skyscraper and the buildings that surround it.

“This might just be the most fitting way for me to go out” Jaime remarks aloud, nodding to herself for a brief moment before looking toward each of her sides, affirmed in her stance with a pleasant smile, “I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better ending.”

“Revenge, red wine, and a really nice view” Jordan’s spirit remarks, standing to the woman’s right with a nod of his own to offer, “I guess there aren’t many better ‘three r’s’ to go out on.” Offering her spirit’s own amusement, Kate matches the railing lean that the couple present, finishing the trio as the sight of a missile draws nearer. “So, Jaime...” the therapist wonders aloud, turning to look the survivor in the eyes, only to see the woman staring at the sunrise with a smile.

Left with a pause, Jaime’s teeth appear beyond her lips as her grin further widens, her mind finishing the woman’s question with an answer to it. “I feel real damn good, Kate” the chancellor replies softly, allowing a tear to run down the left side of her face as the final seconds of life dawn upon her, another sip taken directly from the bottle.

For the first time, the relieved chancellor feels the sensation of true happiness, allowed to spend her dying moments with the people she loves most- even if only in spirit- without any business to leave unfinished. “The republic put up a good fight” Jordan quips, staring at the sunrise with equal pleasure, dismissing the missile as anything other than worth worrying over, “it truly fell with defiance.”

Finally at peace, Jaime lets her eyes roam toward the air in which her fate awaits, taking the form of a brilliant glow headed toward the world she’d built from the ash it was left in. “Are you sad to see it go?” Kate wonders aloud, continuing to look at the side of her friend’s face as the chancellor’s eyes retain their view of the missile, “you may have the best seat in the house to watch something spectacular, but that doesn’t change what has to happen now.”

With the gentle shake of her head, Jaime takes another swig of her drink before defying any such conclusion. “I have nothing to be sad about” the chancellor replies softly, refusing to pay her demise the satisfaction of counting down the seconds to it, instead using those precious moments to reflect on the life that she’s about to put a bow on and send back to its maker like the gift that it is.

“I feared only one thing in life... I feared being alone” Jaime responds, beginning to hear the soft, campfire-like crackle of the missile’s journey toward the earth, her face being overwhelmed with another smile and a burst of tears that fall down the soft skin of her face. “My family is safe. Chevy and Kayla are safe. My people are safe” the chancellor continues, truly overjoyed to finally be done with all that there was to live, “my job is done, my time is up, and I’m...”

Overcome with emotion, Jaime stops her speech, letting her eyes depart from the missile and take toward her right, offering her a look at Kate’s smile before turning toward the opposite direction, allowing her the sight of Jordan’s own. “...I’m the only one here...” she whispers, her smile widening and laughter following, accompanying the nod of reassurance that she gives herself, “...and yet... even if it is just for my last moments...”

Stopping once more, the final survivor pulls her arms away from the railing as the others follow, sharing yet another glance with each other before coupling their hands. Coming together whilst the charred skyscraper stands in the background, Jaime’s left hand finds the embrace of Kate’s own, whilst the missile’s streak of light serves as the background to the coupling of her right hand’s reunion with that of fiance’s, the three once more becoming one as the chancellor finishes.

“...I’ll never be alone again.”

== Dire ==