When the body fell, he threw himself into her arms. They don 't think about it; don 't think about what it means. Lord Sadon 's blood still soaks his hands and smears in Clover 's hair, but it hardly matters. They stand on the lakeshore, rocking back and forth in some manic embrace of joy and relief and instinct. And as it stretches on, they slow their pace, until there is no movement but the trees in the wind and the frantic fluttering of her heart. And uncertainty tears then away from each other. Her voice is dry as paper, and it takes Clover several tries to get the words out. "Where are they?" she croaks. "He 's dead. They all are. We won the war. We won." This becomes her mantra, even as the silence persists. Soto can feel the buzzing of the Renegades from miles away, his skin tingles in anticipation. …show more content…
"Clover." "Yeah?" "Is this really it? Does it really stop here?" She lowers her head to his and gently brushes the hair out of his face. He closes his eyes and breaths in her scent, feeling a single tear hit his cheek, falling from her beautiful eyes. "Yes." She kisses his forehead and backs away. "Keep watch?" his quiet voice asks. "I will. Always." "I love you." his broken and wounded voice calls to her. "I love you too." she whispers back. His hands fall onto the ground and she strikes for his heart, bracing her feet just like he taught her. And Clover is right. She doesn 't miss. The look of anguish and pain on her face followed by the rapid tears are the last thing he sees before he lets himself go. ~~~~~ The moment I turned my back on him, my world stopped. It felt as if time itself had come to a halt. And in that time, I reflected on my life. The way I acted, before and after the war started, and the way I felt. I wanted to take back everything. All the anguish, all the rage. I wanted it all gone. I wanted to take back every bad thing I had ever done. I wanted to give back all the lives I took. And when I fell, the soldiers