Code Name: Phoenix

Chapter 10 - Eternal Flame

"There is always a beginning, a reason for every action we make. All of us make mistakes and we have to learn to live with them, whether we want to or not. And it's not always easy, what is done is done and you couldn't make it better anymore, so you just roll with it. 

There is always an ending too, but most of us would rather not think about it."

If this was the ending then why was there darkness surrounding you?
If this was the ending why did it feel like any other dream you've had until now?
This couldn't be it, this couldn't be all there was. All that talk about there being an afterlife and this was fucking it.

You closed your eyes, not that it mattered since you couldn't see anything, but you felt tired, you felt heavy, even though you were floating in nothingness.
What even happened to you? Did you fall asleep? The events in your mind were slowly fading away and you tried to grab onto them, you tried to remember.. What happened?

- - -

You were falling down fast, wind was blowing hard past your face, and you saw Hawks flying down as fast as he could with his wings that were mostly gone at this point.
Few of his feathers had reached you, you could feel them under your clothes, pulling upwards softly, but there weren't enough of them to evenly stop you.

Hawks knew if he tried to stop your falling too fast it could hurt you, so he tried his best, but you were almost at the ground.
Just a few more meters and he'd reach you, he was so close to you and tried to reach with his hand to you, but it was too late.

Hawks closed his eyes as your body hit the ground. The impact created a small thud sound, and Hawks knew he should have kept his eyes open.
It should have been his punishment to look at you fall.. Punishment for not being fast enough, for not being good enough, for not protecting you like he promised..

Few seconds later he landed next your body and only now opened his eyes to see you. He could hear people screaming around him, but the noises sounded distant.

Hawks collapsed down on his knees as he looked at you laying on the ground. It was excruciating to see you weren't moving at all.
He placed his hand behind your head so he could pick you up, only to realise his hand was now covered in blood.. Your blood.

"Nononono..." Hawks repeated to himself like magic words that would take him back in time.
He had hoped that you had just hit your head a pit and that maybe you were still alive, but the blood dripping down to the ground was proving him wrong.
He checked for a pulse around your neck just to make sure.. but he didn't find one.

Hawks lifted your lifeless body on his lap and held you in his arms. He didn't care about the blood dripping on his clothes, and he didn't care that people started gathering around the scene, curious about what had happened.
He held your body close to him and closed himself off from the world around him with what was left of his wings.

Hawks didn't even hear when the first responders arrived to the scene. He had to be physically shaken out of his blurry state. He hadn't even noticed the tears falling down his face until now.

"Hawks what happened here?" One of the paramedics asked Hawks as they took your body away from him.

"She.. Fell.." Hawks said to the best of his abilities with his shaky voice and slightly lifted his hand to point up.
Hawks wondered for a moment if Dabi had left already or was he waiting for Hawks to return.

Hawks had no idea how much time had passed by at this point, everything seemed blurry and he tried his best to stand straight while the world was spinning in his head.