#Saf has an alternate ending on her DA account

[kantobromance-blog]

End Run: Within A Dream

Previous: http://kantobromance.tumblr.com/post/106141472090/end-run-is-but-a-dream

On the ground Isa was in a savage struggle with a hulking dark-type dog. She screamed as she crashed against the monster and stabbed rapidly into its neck with her tusks. It was digging its claws into her, and using dark energy as it did. She broke away and sprinted, and it came right after her and tackled her down. They rolled on the ground in a violent struggle of blood, fur and shrieking. She'd felt the squad dying at the hands of a single Honchkrow's Perish Song and lost track of Czinka, and in the fallout after that had lost track of Xander in Willow's Night Shade. As she had plummeted through the air she started to reach out to try to find them again. She found her sister. But it was not one she'd been expecting. Alina was back. Isa stood between the beast and her sister, a Gothitelle who crouched fearfully behind her. She had just narrowly saved Alina from the monster's blood-stained maw but in doing so, she was now realizing, she sacrificed her own life. Only a miracle would get her out of this alive. 'Alina! You came back for a reason, now go!' Isa screamed bloody murder as her ear was clamped between dagger teeth and ripped off her head. 'I'LL BE FINE! RUN! RUN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!' Isa went for the throat with her own teeth, shaking her head and stabbing with her tusks. 'Everything happens for a reason. Now go.' There was no argument with this. Alina wiped the dirty trails of tears from her face and scampered off. She had come back for a reason, yes. She had left for a reason, and returned for one now too. There was someone here she loved, who she wanted to save. She needed to, she had to be there for her family. All this way she'd come following the connection she'd built with her sisters and with Xander. She knew how to find him. She found him. Outside of the ruined city, surrounded by their monsters, Xander lied on the ground and Amelia was over him crying. Alina slowly approached. Czinka and Lady felt her coming and almost didn't recognize her from the way she'd changed. /Alina!/ A mix of joy and despair spouted from Lady. 'Alina, you've evolved. You're back.' Czinka approached her and Alina fell against her, nuzzling into her shoulder. Czinka rested her chin over Alina's back. 'We're so glad you are here.' They stood at Xander's side. Czinka hung her head and Alina scrutinized the scene. Xander wasn't dead. 'But what can we do?' Czinka looked dolefully at her sister. She or Lady would just hurt him more if they tried to help. There was nothing they could do but be there as he died. Alina paced away. She was shaking, but she held out. As a Gothorita she would have broken down in this situation, she would have been the first to give up. But she was a Gothitelle now, she evolved because she had grown. She had saved a life before... she could do it again. She would. She had the strength and fortitude to save the one who had done so much for her, whether he knew it or not. She had power now, powers that in the far future would earn her breed the title of Astral Body Pokemon. She could open her inner eye, and when she did now for the first time, the world around her changed. She looked at the group before her, human and Pokemon, and saw the duration of their lives above each of them like a tower. Some longer than others. Xander's was almost gone. It ticked down, sinking into the ground a little more as each second passed. That was where she needed to go. She could, if she could tap into her true powers. If she could just unlock what she had been born with. And she could. She was born for this.

There was nothing. Not even he was there, really. He'd reached the end of the line. Emptiness spread out around him, just as he'd wanted. 'But it's not what you really want.' Old familiar words. 'I'm making do.' He didn't even have to come up with anything new. He'd had this conversation before. But wait.. Who was he having it with? It was the stag again, wasn't it? Then why couldn't he see it? He opened his eyes. There was nothing.. and then there was the stag. "What is this..? Where are we..?" "Where do you think we are?" "You sound different.." Xander said suspiciously. The stag's voice was markedly different from any other time he'd spoken to it. "How do you mean? This is the first we've ever spoken." Xander stared. He didn't understand. "What are you talking about? I've seen you a hundred times before now." "What exactly... do you see before you?" "...What...." "What voice did you hear before when you saw this face?" "What voice... well... It... I think.. it was...." "Whose voice was it? What you saw, was it truly there? Did the voice come from what you saw, or did it come from..." "...It was me..."

'It wasn't... the truth.' Xander stared. The figure before him raised two small feminine hands up to its skull face and removed it as if it were a mask. The stag skull fell to the floor and split completely in two upon impact. The halves sank into the nothingness upon which they stood. It was gone. Xander looked back up at the figure standing in front of him. Slowly they gained more form. A black cloak, a face shrouded in shadow, he could only make out a porcelain white chin. It held a scythe. "You see what you believe you are seeing. Do you know now what I am?" "....Death..?" "Then you understand too where we are. Walk with me." Walking. With nowhere to go, no landmarks to determine how long or how far they'd been walking. There was no time here to pass. There was nothing. "I'm dead?" Xander asked softly. "No. But you will be soon." Xander looked up at the grim figure beside him, then back down. He sighed. "I'd been hoping this would happen, but now that it has... well I don't know. ...I wish I could have done anything differently." "Nobody leaves their life with no regret." "Yeah well I bet nobody leaves their life with as much regret as me." Xander stopped walking and scowled bitterly down at the ground. "God I.. I was just talking to myself all along..." It made sense to him now too. Now that he was here outside of himself, now that the obligations of the world he used to exist in were gone. He felt like he could really think clearly. And he could really allow himself to speak the truth. It was what he'd been speaking all along. But he was so unable to accept it, and accept that he could think that way, he created a monster to speak those monstrous words. "I can't believe it..." He walked. "There's so much I wish I'd done different... you know? I wish... I wish I'd just said 'fuck it' and done the things that would have made me happy. I mean I know that would have been impossible for me. But... I wish I'd spent a little more effort on looking out for myself. I wish I'd put a little more into doing what was right for me. Fuck everyone else... "I... feel like I.. I learned so much all of a sudden, just in the last few hours, and now.. Now I'm dead. What's the fucking point in all these lessons..." "You can at least rest in peace this way. If you settle your grievances before your time, then you will be able to depart, rather than linger." "Yeah... I guess that's true..." Xander sighed. Rest in peace... that did sound pretty good... "Though perhaps you will get the chance to apply what you've learned to your life." "What?" The nothingness rippled, and behind them the surface was broken and a figure clawed its way forth. Xander took a fearful step backward as a black form lurched out of the ground. Then she raised her face to look at him with large ice blue eyes. "A-Alina..."

She ran to him.

"Where did you... Did you- Did you die too?" "No." He heard her voice for the first time. It was beautiful. "I came to bring you back..." Xander didn't know what to think. He looked back over his shoulder to Death. "She is not dying, she cannot see me. It is just the two of you alone in your mind." Xander looked back at the Gothitelle in his arms. "Alina.. I..." "She cannot bring you back." Death was nearer now. "She has no power over death. She merely has the power to reach this plane." Quietly Xander put his arms around Alina. "You can't bring me back Alina..." "No.." she twittered. "No I can't lose you..." She looked up at him with glistening eyes pouring tears. "I lost my family once before, I can't bear it a second time. I would sooner die myself than lose you. I can't lose my father again." Her words hurt. He hadn't realized... "God Alina.." He held her tighter. "I can't do anything." "But she can. She has the ability to exchange her life for yours." Death was at his shoulder. "She cannot see me, but she will hear this as a whisper. A life can be traded for a life." Alina suddenly stepped back, epiphany dawning. "Yes..." "No..!" Xander knew what she was thinking. "I will... Please let me save you. Xander... you have a reason to live. I..." she lowered her head. "My real family is all dead." "But.. the others.. Your sisters." "I love them. And you. But I love my real family too." She started to cry. "The choice is yours," Death retreated, only a little. The choice was his. He couldn't leave and cause Alina suffering for the rest of his life, but he couldn't kill her just for himself. Xander turned away.

He looked to his left, Death, the end to his suffering he'd been hoping for all along. The promise of a final, true rest. He looked to his right, where Alina stood quietly wiping her tears away. A second chance at life, life beyond the war with Amelia, Amelia who had come back. Someone who still loved him even knowing what he was. The choice was his. He took a deep breath. This was his and his alone. He was the one to decide. For once in his life... And had he not just been saying how he wanted to choose what was right for him? Now was his time, and he knew what to choose. Both figures on either side waited expectantly for his decision. He turned toward his choice, and.... he couldn't help but smile. Xander reached out, his hand was met halfway.

"Thank you..."

Hand in hand, they turned together forward. But he hesitated before taking his first step. Looking back over his shoulder, he smiled.

"I'll see you around. Hopefully not for a very long time."

He turned back to face his decision, and he took his first step. He knew he'd chosen what was right.