A/N: My turn! Based on the promo for the finale, thus mildly spoilerish. Pretty much mild theory-fic. Contains a couple character deaths. It's pretty intense and dark, somewhat depressing and yet uplifting? Either way, be forewarned.

He just about collapses when he reaches the location where his family is hidden, his knees giving out and his usually strong legs betraying him. He feels his wife's arms wrap around him, and then she's asking him a thousand frantic questions.

He manages only one reply, one word. "Wash."

That's when Elizabeth notices the absence of the lieutenant. The lieutenant who had been side by side with her husband the last time she had seen him, perhaps only twenty long minutes earlier.

"Jim," she whispers, grabbing his shirt. "Where is she? Where's Alicia?" Her voice takes on a slight panicked edge, like maybe she already knows what she's going to here. But she doesn't. Not exactly anyway.

"Not coming," he says after much effort. She feels his arms squeeze around her, and suddenly her typically strong husband is burying his face into her shoulder.

He's acutely aware that his very frightened children are watching him and Elizabeth, and in a few seconds, he'll remember who he is, and he'll pull himself back together. He'll put his game-face back on then, lock down everything dark and corrosive that's burning inside of him, and focus only on surviving. At least until this whole nightmare is over. But for just a moment, he allows emotion to sweep over him, and damn if it doesn't just about bury him under its weight.

"No, no, that's not right," Elizabeth stammers. "We need to…"

"We can't," he says into her shirt. "There's nothing we can do to help her."

"What does that mean?" Elizabeth demands, forcing her husband to look at her. She places a hand on either side of his face. She sees unshed tears reddening his eyes. He looks so close to coming apart that it almost breaks her as well.

"It means she bought us some time to get the hell out of here." And just like that, he pulls himself back together. "And we're damn well going to use every second of it." He steps away from Elizabeth, and turns to face his children. "Grab your gear, guys, we're moving out. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand," Maddy replies. "I don't understand at all. Where's Lieutenant Washington?"

Jim takes a breath, and then answers, his voice cracking slightly, "Wash let herself get taken by Lucas and Weaver's soldiers so that they wouldn't look for anyone else for a bit. She's Taylor's second – the second in command of Terra Nova - they'll focus all of their attention on her. At least for a few minutes."

"What does that mean? What will they do to her?" Josh demands. He doesn't have the relationship with the lieutenant that the rest of his family does, but hearing his fathers' words, he has a chilling sinking feeling in his chest. The kind that suggests that something very awful is happening…probably right about now.

Jim exchanges a look with Elizabeth, who seems uncertain and pensive. She knows what her husband wants to say, but isn't sure the children should have to carry the burden of the lieutenants' apparent sacrifice.

"They should know," Jim tells her. "It may hurt, but what she's doing for us – what she's done – maybe it should hurt." He looks at each of his children, and says in a voice thick with sadness and anger, "Lucas will surely have her killed. He'll probably do it himself. She means too much to his father not to."

"No," Maddy gasps, putting a hand over her mouth. She feels her brother put an arm around her, pulling her close. "No. No. No."

"We should go back for her," Josh insists, giving voice to a courage that he doesn't quite feel. Absent anything to do with his hands but hold his shaking and now crying sister, he simply pulls her tighter.

"We can't," Jim answers dully. "We can't."

There's a horrific finality to his words, enough so that no one else offers even a word of protest. Instead, Josh releases Maddy, then lifts up Zoe (who is mercifully completely uncomprehending) into his arms.

"All right," he says simply. "If she managed to get the guards away from the east side, then that's our easiest way out." When his father gives him a questioning look, Josh finishes quietly with, "I've gone OTG that way a dozen times."

Jim nods, takes Elizabeth by the hand, squeezes it, and then with an impossibly heavy heart, leads his family away from Terra Nova.

This isn't the first time that Alicia Washington has been about to die. There was the time early during the war when she'd been captured, and lined up to be executed. Only a last minute save had spared her life. Then, of course, there'd been her near death by bullet a few years later.

This time, though, she really is quite sure that it's over.

Even more so when she looks up and into the entirely too cold eyes of Lucas Taylor. They're the same age, she and him, and yet they really couldn't be more different if they'd tried to be. She'd grown up essential alone, mostly taking care of herself. He'd been raised by two parents who had loved him dearly – even if Nathaniel had always struggled to show it. He'd been raised with privilege and opportunity, she'd had to create her own.

Still, for a time way back, they'd been something of friends.

All of that had ended when Ayani had been murdered. Overnight, he'd changed, allowed his hatred to hopelessly corrupt his soul. Their friendship had collapsed the moment he'd realized that her loyalty to Nathaniel was absolute.

All of which has led to this horrible moment.

The end.

She struggles even though she knows there's no point in doing so. Her hands are bound behind her, and the two men holding her are heavily armed. She feels herself get thrown to her knees. It's humiliating, but then that's the point.

"Alicia," he says with a smile.

"Lucas," she replies with a much darker smile.

"Here we are."

"I won't beg for my life," she tells him, fatigue settling on her like a heavy weight.

"That's disappointing," he admits, "But not unexpected. After all, you are my father's most trusted dog."

She bristles at that, but does no more than glare up at him, making sure that he knows that if he does this, he's going to have to look her in the eye first.

"He built you in his image," Lucas continues. "Which means you think silence is honorable and dying is heroic." He pulls a gun out of his holster, looking down at it as he continues to speak. "I'm going to shoot you in the stomach, you know why?" He waits for her reply for a moment. When it doesn't come, he answers his own question, "Because I want you to have time to realize what a liar he is. How all he's done is lead you down the path to hell."

"I have no regrets," she says simply.

"Interesting. Tell me something, Alicia. Explain it to me how you were so easily caught? My guys said you just about ran into them? Are you hiding something? Laying down your life for someone else?"

"I got bad directions," she answers, a small smirk playing across her lips. Almost absurdly, she delights in the anger and frustration she sees in his eyes. "I think I was supposed to take a left and I took a right instead. And there were your piece of shit wanna-be soldiers."

She's not surprised to feel the soldier to her left grab at her hair, yanking her head backwards, practically exposing her throat to Lucas. If he wanted to, it'd be extremely easy to slit her throat right now.

But no, he wants her to suffer.

"You're as good as a liar as my father is."

"Thank you," she replies.

"You know, I almost feel sorry for this," Lucas says, aiming the gun at her. "We were friends once."

"No, I was friends with a different man. I don't know who the hell you are."

"Fair enough." He aims his gun at her stomach, a cruel smile crossing his lips. "If I were you, I'd close my eyes."

"You're not me." She continues staring at him.

"No, I'm not."

She hears the sound of the gun firing long before she feels the impact of the bullet (in reality, probably less than a second separates the two events). It cuts into her abdomen, and for a moment, she's back in Somalia.

Only difference is, this time, Nathaniel isn't around to hold her, to tell her to fight, to plead with her to live.

She collapses to the ground, her hands still tied behind her back. The medic in her tries to figure out how long she has left. Not long in the grand scheme of things, but certainly long enough to feel the agony of bleeding out.

She feels Lucas kneel beside her, feels his fingers on her face. "When I find him," Lucas says, "I'll make sure to bring him back here first. I want him to see your body. I want him to know he failed another woman."

She looks up at him, still forcing herself to make eye contact. "He never failed me," she gasps out.

"How sad," Lucas muses. "How terribly sad."

And with that, he stands up, and motions to the guards. "Show me where you found her. I want to know what she was hiding."

She hears their steps as they disappear. Once they're gone, headed off towards where she'd left Jim a brief while ago, she allows her eyes to close. Death is still a ways away – her blood is leaking from her body, but not quickly enough to make this fast and easy. The only mercy is that she can see the darkness coming towards her quickly. Unconsciousness will claim her long before death will. Considering where she is, though, it's all pretty much the same.

She allows her mind to drift back through her life.

She thinks of her beginnings, her middles and now her end. She thinks of Nathaniel, and things never said.

She almost lets out a pained sob, and perhaps, just as she's about to, she feels human hands on her.

Female hands. They're warm and comforting, gentle and kind. She figures if these are the last hands she ever feels, she can deal with that.

And then she lets the darkness overtake her.

Fire explodes, illuminating the night sky. The sound of gunfire erupts in every direction. This is the end of things, the end of it all.

Somehow or another, the little ragtag group led by Nathaniel has managed an almost astonishing upset. The Phoenix soldiers have been taken down one by one thanks to trickery, cunning and death by dino.

And yet for some reason, Nathaniel Taylor allows himself to be taken prisoner by his son (there are no accompanying soldiers now). He allows his son to drag him through Terra Nova, he permits Lucas to force him to see the colony he so loves burning. Nothing that can't be fixed, but it still breaks his heart to see all that he has worked and bled for crumbling to the earth.

"I have one more present for you, Dad," Lucas sneers. This is almost the end of this as well – his son is beyond saving, beyond redemption. The cruelty and hate that sparks in his eyes have pushed him far past the line of plausible return.

"Show me her," Nathaniel says simply. He's tired, and wants this over. He knows what's coming – knows that Jim and Reynolds and the rest of the soldiers who had escaped Terra Nova are now mere minutes away from taking the colony back. The end of this nightmare is close.

There's just one more detail left unverified.

Wash.

Jim had told him of what she'd done, and through the hurt that had pierced him more deeply than he could have ever imagined, he'd felt pride.

And then fury. But that, he tells himself, is for later.

For now, he needs to see her.

He lets Lucas lead him into the center of Terra Nova, to the area right in front of the crumbling Command Center. It's dark, and there are no lights now, but Lucas clearly knows where he's going, what he expects to find when he gets there.

Only something isn't right.

She's not where he'd left her.

Lucas tilts his head, thinking that somehow, inexplicably, the lieutenant had managed to crawl away – bound hands and all. "Jesus, Dad," he mutters. "You really did remake yourself, didn't you?"

Taylor says nothing to that, his eyes instead locked on the pool of blood on the cement, dark maroon and leaking in several directions. And in the middle of it all is a boot print. Small, and not deep indicating a woman.

Not Wash.

Clearly, someone else had come for her. Pulled her to…safety?

No, probably not. Still, he feels hope blossom in him.

"I'm going to find her, Dad. And then I'm going to gut her. Don't fool yourself, Old Man; she not going to survive this."

"Neither are you," a trembling voice says. Taylor turns and sees Skye appear from behind the Command Center, fire acting as an almost heroic backdrop. Her clothes are smeared with blood, and she's clearly exhausted, but there's something in her eyes – something defiant, furious and resolved.

"Bucket," Lucas chuckles. "Didn't I tell you to get the hell out of here?"

"You did. I didn't." She pulls a gun out, and points it right at Lucas.

"Skye," Taylor breathes. He wants to shake his head and tell her not to do this. As angry as he is with her betrayal, she is still a child, one who has already done terrible acts that she's going to have live with for the rest of her life.

"I have blood on my hands," she says, holding them up. He doesn't know if she means figuratively or literally – probably both. "I never wanted this. I never wanted to hurt anyone."

"Boo hoo," Lucas snaps back. "Wake up, Little Girl, we don't always get what we want. Sometimes, we have to take it."

"You're right," she nods. She places her finger on the trigger, and moves to fire.

Lucas is faster. So much faster.

She falls, grunting in pain. Her fingers go to her stomach. Above her, she hears motion, shouting, and then another gunshot.

"Skye," a voice whispers moments later.

She opens her eyes. "Commander," she smiles. "This doesn't hurt too, bad."

"Don't say that."

"Lieutenant Washington," she whispers. "She's holding on. Boylan is with her."

"Okay. Okay." He brushes hair away from her eyes.

"Did I do good?" she asks, tears running down her cheeks.

"Yeah, you did good."

"You'll tell my mom I love her."

"She knows."

"Please?"

"I promise."

"I'm sorry," she tells him. "I'm so sorry."

"Shh. Everything is forgiven." He's leaning down towards her, hands touching her face. He feels her coming apart. A moment later, she stills.

The colonists take back Terra Nova with almost more ease than makes sense. The few survivors of the Phoenix group flee – either back through the portal or into the jungle. It hardly matters.

When Jim finds Taylor, the Commander is bent over his son's body, holding him in his arms. There's a single bullet hole in between the boys' eyes. Skye's body lies a few feet away, Taylor's jacket over her, as if protecting her.

"I failed him."

"No, sir. You didn't make him this."

Taylor won't believe that. Instead, he says, "Skye saved Wash. She's in Boylan's bar. He knows basic aide, but she probably needs a real doctor."

Jim barely has the words to express the hope rushing through him. "Wash is alive?"

"Was a short while ago anyway." Taylor says, looking up at him. There's such horrible sadness in his cobalt eyes, such wrenching loss. It's clear that he himself doesn't quite believe that is Wash is alive. Not after all of this.

But Jim needs to believe it, wants to believe it.

"I'll get Elizabeth to her," Jim assures him.

"Thank you."

"Commander…"

"Please. I just…please."

Jim turns to Reynolds, who is staring down at Skye's body. "Keep everyone away from here. No one comes close until the Commander allows it."

"Yes, sir."

"And step back yourself, let him have…let him have his privacy."

Mark nods. He doesn't completely understand the grief and anguish he feels bleeding out of the Commander at the loss of the man who had caused all of this hurt and pain, but he understands enough to know after everything Nathaniel Taylor has done for this place, he's more earned the right to mourn whoever the hell he wants however the hell he wants to do it.

Slowly, he steps back and away, leaving the Commander with his son.

The funerals happen quickly. Everyone who died defending Terra Nova is buried with military honors. Skye is given the ceremony due to a hero.

Lucas is buried in private.

The only ones who attend are Jim and Elizabeth Shannon, and his slowly recovering lieutenant. She has no business being out of bed after taking a bullet to the gut, and nearly bleeding out, and yet she insists on being by his side.

There are no words said at his funeral, no eulogies. The foursome just stands side by side, each wondering why things couldn't have turned out differently.

Afterwards, on the slow and almost torturous walk back to the Infirmary (it's one of the only buildings in Terra Nova which had essentially been left unharmed), Elizabeth offers Wash a thank you for her attempted sacrifice, but the lieutenant deflects it uncomfortably, looking at Jim as she says simply that it'd been her job, and that she would do it again. These words earn her a hug from the doctor that she accepts because right now, nothing feels better than human contact. Nothing feels more important nor more grounded than the feel of a hand touching her.

Once they've reached the Infirmary, and after Jim has told her that he'll be by later to keep her company with a deck of cards and maybe some smut novels if he can manage to steal them from his wife (this earns him a snort from Wash and a glare from Elizabeth) the doctor helps her back down onto the bed that will be hers for the next several weeks.

It's ten minutes later, as she's slightly dozing when she hears the door to the room open and the shut, the lock sealing it closed. She looks up to see Nathaniel standing next to the door, watching her with those intense eyes of his.

She thinks for a moment that he's about to say something to her – something about being glad she's alive or heartbroken about the losses he's endured, but then, instead, he crosses the room, leans over and presses his forehead against hers. If she's surprised by the act, she doesn't show it. Instead, she reaches up, puts her hands on the back of his head, and holds him to her.

For a long couple of minutes, they stay like that, letting the emotion of the last several days finally break them both down. She feels tears fall down her face. She says nothing. She simply adjusts her hold, pulling him to her. In a short bit, this will be over, and he'll be strong again. They both will as they most for the colonists. But for now, she allows her own tears to fall.

Fear. Pain. Hurt.

Loss.

Silently, they cry together.

He's the one who breaks away, smiling at her as he does, thanking her without words for being there in a way no else can. They lock eyes for a long moment, so much said, so much unsaid. He touches her cheek, then turns, and without further comment of any kind, leaves the room.

She falls back against the bed, the pain in her stomach sharp now. In a few minutes, Elizabeth will surely enter the room and dope her up again (she's not being given an option this time), but until that time comes, she wants to think about all that has happened.

So she does.

She thinks about a young man who had allowed hatred to destroy him.

She thinks about soldiers who has laid down their lives to protect everything that they believed in.

She thinks of the sound of a bullet being fired, and then the pain of impact.

She thinks of Skye's soft hands on her – unpracticed and unsure, and yet resolved to not let her die.

She thinks of Nathaniel and the tears he'd cried. Tears she can still feel on her cheeks, salty and watery.

She thinks of sacrifice. Heroic, but bitter.

She resolves to never forget that sacrifice.

She never does.

-Fin.