Two Shots

By: Commentaholic - Alpha 02

A/N: Long overdue. I just wanted to do it justice without actually... finishing it. Might make an ongoing series. But who knows how long a story could go with this concept? Any thoughts on the matter?

Chapter Six: The Next Great Adventure

She deserved better than this.

I cradled the limp form in my arms, wishing it wasn't so. But the arms limp, bones shattered... the head at an unnatural angle... They all argued against my most urgent wishes.

Faith was dead. My Faith... My shaking fingers touched the pale skin of her cheek.

It was all I had been able to do to stomach my grief and recover her body instead of running off into the gloomy, wet, rainy night. Maybe I'd even manage to track down that bastard that shot her. By the time I stopped staring into the dark abyss between the buildings, hoping she would climb her way back out, her killer was long gone.

I brought her inside an abandoned building... and managed to get a half-coherent call for help out before my resolve wavered and my mind shattered.

In a single night, I had lost all those I had held dear. Digit... Hops...

Faith...

God... where did it all go wrong?

I turned my face towards the dark skies.

"Why?" I whispered pitifully.

Then all the floodgates opened and I broke down crying. Tears blurred my vision as I screamed. I don't know how long.

I hardly even noticed when strong arms took me up and bore us away. Faith and I.

And after my voice died, hoarse from all the agonized screaming, after my eyes were read and all the tears were shed... only one thought really remained in my mind.

They would pay. If it was the last thing I did, I would make whoever did this pay.

Death... comes all too soon for some people. I had my own brush with death not too long ago... And now I face another kind of death.

They say that death is the next great adventure. Life is clinging to the edge of a knife, between the dark and the light. You have to choose which side to fall on... and it's a long way down.

There's a point in everybody's life at which they make that choice. Some make it sooner than others. Faith made hers when she saved me. When all the odds and all her friends told her it was suicide to keep trying, she wouldn't quit on me.

She rescued me that day. Rescued me from Jackknife.

That was the day I made my choice, I suppose. I chose to continue walking that edge. Or does that mean I avoided the choice? Faith always seemed to walk the brighter side of that path. I'd like to think I'll follow her on that path.

The Mirror's Edge. The Way of the Runner.

I suppose... I can't really go by my name anymore. That person is dead. A couple of the others are taking to calling me Sleipnir, after some deific entity. Some god's horse or something. I can't really say I'm fond of the whole name, but it's stuck, so far at least. Digit and Hops seem to like it, so maybe it's not that bad. I REFUSE to go by the full name, though. I suppose... "Sly"? Works for me. Faith seems to like it, too. I hope I don't let her down.

So... I guess that's the end of the old me, eh? Her death, as it were. Metaphorically, of course...

Hello world, say hello to Sly...

And goodbye to Kate.

-Sly's Journal, April 29th, 2036