'Ere ya' go! NEW CHAPTER!
I decided that, for this next chapter, I would return to the style that I used for earlier chapters, one that was (slightly) less poetic crazy-talk and more actual description/detail. I feel that this is the best one so far, and if you could offer feedback, it would be great.

That means "Read N' Review!"
(And I'm sorry I was gone for so long)

Heroes Aren't Forgotten
Chapter 12 – Tenacity

...three words, only three
to help you go to sleep.
what makes you sad,
what makes you mad,
three words, only three...

The thought surprised him at first, but was quickly welcomed with the calmness one might use to greet an old friend. It had been many, many years since he had heard that rhyme, and the nostalgia he felt tickled the pit of his stomach. It was from when he was just a child, told to him by one of his school teachers, and he found it amazing that such a seemingly distant, lost memory could float back to him at a time when he needed it most.

He couldn't sleep, there was too much to think about.

Alright then, he thought, lets slow things up and break it down; let's do as the song says:
'what makes you sad,'
Oh, wow. Lots of things. Come to think of it, right now pretty much everything. Maybe we'll come back to this one?
'what makes you mad,'
Much easier. I'm mad at myself. No, not just mad; angry, furious.
I'm responsible for everything that's happened to him. Me.
Me me me me me.
Three words: Stupid, weak and...
…cruel?
Alright, great. Now:
'what makes you sad,'
Again, pretty much everything. Especially Acmetropolis.
Three words: Violent, broken and...
…different?

Breaking down his thoughts did little to help him rest, and he tossed and turned on the freezing concrete. Not a minute later, he let out a long sigh, sat up and came to terms with the fact that he was not going to sleep tonight. Cross-legged, he stared up at the full moon, barely visible through the hole in the ceiling and the sooty clouds above it. He envied it.
The moon.

Three words: Gorgeous, undying and...
...at peace.

Now he spoke out loud, slowly and near tears.

"'At peace' is more than one word."

Now the tears began to come, but he did nothing to hold them back. Rev Runner wrapped himself in his arms and buried his beak in their feathery warmth.

"You did this to him you-did-this-to-him!"

Within the darkness of his self-embrace he could taste his own salty-sweet tears, and they soaked the feathers of his arms and face. The small bird shivered with each sob, and each sob further fueled his rage.

"Stupid-stupid-stupid-STUPID-You-HAD-to-get-hurt-You-HAD-to-be-rescued-you-weak-selfish... you-stupid-"

Now he fell over, pulling his legs tight against his chest, a red and black ball helpless on the cold and unforgiving concrete, his tail and crest quivering with each sob and the impartial full moon watching all of it from above; gorgeous, undying and at peace.

Tech E. Coyote sat silently in the next room, slumped against the farthest wall. He could hear the roadrunner cursing himself next door, and the coyote was convinced he would join him in his hateful sorrow if it didn't stop soon. After all that had happened over the last couple days, the canine felt he could use a good cry.

NEVER!
That bird next door is young, and weak!

The voice, the one in his head, had (passively) tried to convince Tech over the past week that the heroic and selfless life would bring him nothing good, and in many ways it was right, but now Tech was unsure of it.

"I'm young, too," he whispered back.

No no no, the apocalypse has matured you, and it's only because of that that you have survived.

Something dawned on the coyote then, something powerful. It felt like someone had just turned on the lights.

"What's the point of surviving if you can't live for anything?"

The voice remained silent, and Tech was unsure if it had given up outright or if it was just taking its time to respond. Somehow Tech suspected the latter.
With his mind clear for at least a few moments, Tech tried to piece together the situation. It was amazing how difficult thinking had become for him over the last couple days, what with the voice in charge.

"What do you want more than anything in the world right now, Tech?"

The coyote thought long and hard, racking his brain for an answer. The answer was so close, he knew it, but it was like he was hitting a wall, and it actually hurt!

"C'mon, Tech, come on!"

And then he heard something, a physical noise, a thunk from inside his head.
And he knew what he wanted.

"I want to be happy, and proud of it."

Then the voice spoke up, cautiously:
...and what would it take for that?

Tech didn't have to think long about that one. He knew that answer right away.

Rev had since stopped crying and had moved himself to the only corner in the room where the moonlight still shone. Crying would get him nowhere. Crying wasn't part of the Runner way. Crying was for kids, or for people at funerals, or maybe for-

Stop.
Focus.

He could almost imagine what his father's face might look like now, a passive frown of general disapproval, the one he tended to save only for Rip, or for Mom when she told him to take his feet off of the coffee table. The bird let out a deep sigh at the image. He wondered if they were okay.

Well of course they are, he thought; out in the desert, there are fewer buildings to worry about falling on your head, and Mom and Pop have been living not five miles from a major fault line the last fifteen years; earthquakes are a regular thing down there, like rain is up here.

This comforted the roadrunner for a little bit, but his thoughts quickly drifted back to his comrade in the next room.

What Tech went through to help me...
Only a true friend could have done the things that Tech did.
But at what cost? What am I worth? Certainly not THAT much. Not enough to warrant...
Was murder the right word?

Again he sighed, the air this time making a quiet, sad whistle as it passed through his beak. He knew that was the right word.
And, surprisingly, he could fathom most of the things Tech did. Rev had already since reasoned with himself that, in similar situations, he would have probably done the same things for Tech.
No, he would have definitely done the same things for Tech.
What bothered Rev the most, what brought him much of his current anxiety, was Mark and Sarah. How anyone could bring themselves to do what Tech did to them was a horrible mystery to Rev. He remembered the few words they had all exchanged over the radio:

Tech: "Rev, I want to introduce you to some people, people who have really helped you and I out today. This is Mark-"
Mark: "Nice to meet you."
Tech: "-And this is Sarah, your biggest fan."
Sarah: "Hi Rev! I'm Sarah!"
Rev: "Hi-there-Sarah-it's-a-REAL-pleasure-to-meet-you-You-both-sound-REAL-nice-and-Tech-REALLY-seems-to-like-you-guys-and-"
Tech: "Rev..."

Yeah, it wasn't much, but it was enough for Rev to know that Mark and Sarah were good people, people who didn't deserve... you know.
To die.

Tech... COULDN'T have done that. But he did. Was it what I said to him:

Tech: "Rev, you there?"
Rev: "Well-of-COURSE-I'm-still-here-Where-else-could-I-have-gone?"
Tech: "Rev, let's say... that I was the one missing... and that you were trying to find me-"
Rev: "Yeah?"
Tech: "-But... it's going to be really hard-"
Rev: "Yeah-yeah?"
Tech: "-And you're going to have to... make some hard choices... How far would you be willing to go? What would you be willing to do? What are your limits?"
Rev: "Well, Tech... I... guess-I-would-do-whatever-it-takes... I-mean-you-ARE-my-best-pal."
(silence)
Rev: "Tech? TECH?"
Tech: "Yeah, Rev. I'm here. I just... have to go do something. I'm going to have to turn off the radio..."

The memory ran chills up and down the bird's spine, and he shivered, again wrapping himself in his arms.

No, that wasn't my fault. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that I was high when I said that, but that's besides the point.

Rev tried to think of how someone could be capable of such an atrocity, of murdering a father and just... leaving his daughter behind. He dug through his brain and came up with four possible options:

1: He analyzed every possible option and every possible outcome, ran through it all multiple times (in particular Tech fashion) and, in conclusion, deemed his actions to be "reasonable" (and if this were any other situation, that would almost certainly be correct, but...);
2: He went "feral" through desperation (a case of survival instincts overriding basic morality, it's happened before, so...);
3: He was pushed by Rev to do it (possible, but somehow not right, maybe...);

or...
4: He just... snapped.

Before Rev could continue to ponder the options he was grabbed by the shoulders and brought up to his feet, back pinned to the wall. He had been so deep in his thought that he hadn't even noticed Tech sneak into the room. Rev looked into the coyote's eyes and saw something wild, something desperate. The moonlight made his brown fur shimmer. He smiled a toothy grin.

"Rev, you're gonna' think I'm crazy but I KNOW how to stop it!"

Rev tried hard to conceal the shock in his voice, but it still shone through.

"H-how? And what?"

Tech released him, backing off from the moonlit wall and entering the shadows. His green eyes seemed to glow.

"The voice, the stupid voice!"

Now Rev didn't even try to control his tone.

"Oh crap Tech, what-are-you talking about?"

"Like I said, you're gonna' think I'm crazy..."

Well, Rev thought, I think it's safe to go with option number four.

"Wait-a-second-Tech-What-the-HECK-is-going-on-and-why-did-you-have-to-SCARE-me-like-that?"

Now Tech had calmed down, and he stepped back into the moonlight.

"Alright, I'm pretty sure that I've gone half-insane and grabbing you like that just felt like the right thing to do."

Tech smiled brightly at the confused roadrunner, as if that sentence was supposed to clarify everything, silly. He frowned a second later when he realized that Rev was still lost. The coyote walked over and put his right arm around Rev's shoulders, the bird staring at him in hopeless confusion.
Tech found the expression to be both amusing and frustrating.

"Alright, Rev, what I think has been driving me crazy is this voice in my head. It's been telling me all sorts of undesirable things about how I should have let you die because that means I'm weak, or something like that. Are you getting all of this so far?"

Rev only nodded. He had no idea what to say because he really had no idea. At least, he didn't think he did.

"Alright, great. Now, in 'rescuing' you, I'm pretty sure I realized that you were the single most important thing in my life right now, not including my 'babies' because they're all dead. Somehow, you seem to help me 'break through' whatever it is the voice does to me."

Tech let go of Rev, who still stared, albeit with a bit less confusion, and moved so he was directly facing him.

"Basically, you weaken it! The thought of rescuing you – of just you being alive – kept it reasonably at bay, but now that I've actually rescued you, the voice still remains, which is-"

"Weird."

Rev's contribution to the conversation excited Tech, and he began pacing around the room, now speaking almost as fast as the roadrunner himself.

"YES! REALLY WEIRD! But I have it all figured out! You weaken the voice because you make me happy, but seeing you unhappy does not make me happy, and you're unhappy because I'm crazy, and I'm crazy because you're unhappy, and..."

Tech stopped pacing, his face now more confused than Rev's.

"...And I really have a problem here."

The coyote walked over next to Rev, leaned against the wall, and slid down to the floor with a few angry mumbles.

"...Stupid paradoxes..."

Rev slid down the wall as well, and now they both found themselves sitting on the floor under the full moon, exhausted and hopelessly confused. While his companion continued to bury his face in his palms, Rev looked up at the moon

(gorgeous, undying, at peace)

and couldn't help but feel that they were missing something.
Something really obvious.

Rev Runner spoke his thoughts as slowly and clearly as he could manage: "Tech, couldn't you just... find something else that makes you happy?"

Tech looked up from his palms to see the young bird staring down at him, his expression nervous and unsure. The canine saw an idea in those eyes.

Rev waited for a reply, and when he figured none was coming, he spoke again: "If you... If Sarah's still... alive... do you think we could find her and... maybe help her out, or something...?"

Tech continued to study Rev, remaining absolutely silent.

"...Well, Tech... do you think that would make you... happy enough? I mean... that would make me happy..."

Still Tech was silent, and his stare made Rev so nervous that he was considering slapping the coyote across the face just to change it. Rev was pretty sure he would have, too, had the coyote not burst into laughter first.
Tech laughed and laughed, laughed louder than the roadrunner had ever heard anyone laugh before, and pretty soon Rev found himself laughing right along, not knowing why but secretly scared not to. Soon they were laughing so hard that Rev started crying, which only made Tech laugh even more, and by the time they settled down enough to catch their breath, both of them were sprawled out on the floor. Rev still quietly chuckled, and Tech was barely able to get his words out between his own gasps for air:

"That sounds... like a GREAT... idea..."