arte and sunny's guide to surviving the apocalypse

Sunny and Rowan landed in heaps on the ground, with falling right out of the elevator shaft. The cave was tinted purple, illuminated by electrical bursts from over the edges of the clear path ahead of them; and what a path it was, with its winding turns into other caverns. A perfect place to meet god, or die trying.

Sunny hardly even paused, rolling back up again, while Rowan struggled to his feet, groaning the whole way back up. Sunny just whirled on him again, not even giving him time to stand again.

"What the hell was that, Rowan?"

Rowan finally snarled back, eyes glowing with something like fury; Sunny took a small step back as he straightened all the way, glowering down at Sunny. "Will you just shut up? I need to find Artemis, I'm here to find Artemis so we could all leave."

"Keep his name out of your mouth." Sunny was seconds away from lashing at him, hatred burning like a coal in his chest. "If you'd actually cared about either of us, you wouldn't have even left to begin with! You're a self-serving piece of shit, Rowan!"

"You don't know a damn thing, Apollo," Rowan growled back, his anger reminding Sunny of a thunderhead; slow coming, rumbling, and dark. And though the child in him wanted to cower away, Kyriaki wouldn't let him do so.

"I know a lot more than you ever will. And I'm so much more than you'll ever fucking be."

Rowan just scoffed at him, turning away to walk down the dark path ahead. "Stay here, you foolish, foolish child. And when Artemis and I come back, you can apologize for talking to me that way."

"He's dangerous, Dad," Sunny found himself calling as Rowan continued to retreat. "He's not himself, you shouldn't go." As much as he wanted to punch Rowan in the face, Sunny found he didn't quite want him to die.

"He's my son," Rowan replied sharply, ducking into the entrance to the next cavern. "I'll make him listen to me. You'll see soon enough, you'll both see- getting yourself all caught up in politics. Leave that to the adults next time, Sunny, will you?"

"It's not politics, it's the end of the fucking world!" Sunny screamed after him, but Rowan was gone, limping further into the caverns. He didn't listen, he never fucking listened. And after a moment of bouncing on his heels, debating on what he should do, Sunny decided he didn't listen either.

The caverns were seemingly endless, stretching on into dark oblivion as Sunny ran. His footsteps echoed in a lonely, final way back to him, like the fading heartbeat of the world itself. And Sunny just ran, he ran like his feet had wings.

He ran until he couldn't run anymore, until he was standing in the brightest cavern of them all, the one lit up by the Altar's luminous glow. And silhouetted against the brilliance, its metal arm reattached, was the imposing figure of the one person who stood to resist Apollyon, the one person Sunny wanted nothing more than to run to. There would be no comfort from Firefly now, and as far as Firefly was concerned, there never was any to begin with.

Neither of them moved, locked in a dead stare. Sunny couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, a tidal wave of grief coming to swallow him whole. And really, what is grief, but just love persisting? Even if you wish it would wither up and die, it persists. That's the best thing it can do, the worst thing it can do. How could Kyriaki, or Abaddon, or anyone think Sunny could ever hurt the one person who cared about him, the last person he'd had ripped from him. He tried to step forward, but he couldn't. He tried to speak, but no sound came out. What could he say? What could he ever say? It wasn't like Artemis could hear him. It wasn't like Firefly cared.

Looking at him, all Sunny could think about was a long, shared childhood. About how they'd almost died that night with the soldiers; about how, through everything, Arte had insisted they should stick together, all because Sunny had said it the night Calliope's death. Smaller memories washed over him as he stood there, paralyzed, hitting him like physical blows.