Okay, seriously, I'm sorry you guys. Thank you so much for being patient with me. At the moment I'm writing this while sitting on an FMO couch (military furniture is never comfortable). I'll be leaving soon for South Carolina so after that things should calm down. I'm thinking of writing another fanfic after this one. Take It Back is now, after this chapter, done, so I'll have to write something else to take up my time. If any of you, my wonderful reviewers, have any requests for a kind of Legend fanfic I'd love to hear them.

DAY: Chapter 16

I couldn't see. I couldn't move or even feel my chest rise with the breath that I must be taking. Unless I was dead…that was always a possibility. But I could hear. And of all the things I could hear was Thomas' voice. So I must be alive. Never in my wildest dreams would I think Thomas to be in my heaven. Maybe I was in hell? That would make a lot more sense.

"Day, wake up already." I could move my fingers I think. They were coming back to me, like warming your hands after being out in the cold for too long. My legs had gone numb and were fizzling back to life. The feeling in my shoulder came back too soon as it was met with a particularly hard shove by the not too gentle interrogator. I let out a groan partly because of the shove but mostly because of the pounding headache drilling through my skull. There wasn't even a tumor that I could blame it on. "If you don't get up now you'll have to wait until tonight to see her."

I have to admit that those words woke me up better than any cold water ever could. I sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it. My vision came rushing back sending my stomach rolling. "Who exactly are you talking about? And where the heck am I?" I ground out through clenched teeth, trying to keep my breakfast down. The last thing I remembered was Thomas shooting me with that plague gun of his. Judging from the lousy way I felt it hadn't been filled with the plague, probably some sedative.

Thomas just looked at me as though I'd had my head chopped off instead of just losing my hair. "Do you usually act this stupid?" I glared at him. Before I'd been knocked out I had been possessed by a powerful rage but now, it was as if the feeling had evaporated. The emotion was gone and in its place was a strange eagerness. "I wouldn't have to ask stupid questions if you'd just answer me." My vision had cleared and the hammering in my head had diminished to a bearable thumping. The room was small and cold. Metal walls rose above me with only the light from a slit in the door to prove that I wasn't underground. With a touch (my hands no longer numb) I felt the floor shudder under me. It was a box car. I was on a train. A train going somewhere. Except for Thomas and me, the car was empty. Something in me was greatly disappointed by this, why I have no idea. "Who am I meeting?" Thomas shook his head and laughed (something I wasn't aware that Thomas could do).

"I already told you. You're meeting June." My heart was in my ears, beating and thrumming as though it was annoyed that I had never previously paid attention to how much blood was really going through me all the time. Headache forgotten, I felt like collapsing in on myself, a shirt to be folded and put away. I couldn't let myself grab onto those words and the glimmer of hope they brought. I twisted the ring on my finger.

"Thomas, I don't want to see the body, I can't." The words were rough and coarse, like stones had filled my throat, making it ache. Thomas' once happy domineer was almost instantly replaced with a serious one.

"Day, Daniel, I'm going to tell you what happened. I'm going to explain to you exactly what took place those few days before June's death." I shook my head and shut my eyes. I couldn't do it, not again. I couldn't bring myself to hear him say how I had caused it, how I had come rushing into her cell and found her broken like she'd been. There was no way I could relive that, not again. But Thomas kept talking and I couldn't help but listen.

"June was infected with the plague, that part is true. She was going to die if she didn't get the cure, which thanks to you, was available. But she and I both knew that if she lived then the Republic would lose the war."

"You don't know that, we could have won." I had to cut in. But his face crumpled to barely held fury.

"You and I both know that the Republic needed something to be angry about. If one or the both of you died then there was no stopping the Republic. But if you were both safe and sound, the resolve would have been weak. Not to mention Anden would have never made the decisions he did if it wasn't for June dying." That was true. Anden, in his grief had done all he could to win the war. The Republic had been dealt great losses but it didn't seem to matter much since we won the war. Revenge is a powerful thing. "As you know, June broke into the armory and took my gun." He waved the plague gun that was strapped at his waist. "She did this so she could counteract the cure, keep herself infected long enough to die." He spoke as though he was talking about the weather. My hands fisted, but I'd let him finish. "June Imparis died the day that you came into her cell," he took a breath, "but the Colonies are wrong. Because I never filled my gun with the plague darts. After that first day when I took the both of you and I shot at June-" the thought seemed to pain him, a day that seemed years ago, "I filled it instead with sedatives. They were ones that I had made myself. They made it look like the person was dead. It could even fool sensors for up to 24 hours." Thomas took a breath. "Tess was actually the one who had come up with the idea when she joined the Colonies. I'd never had a reason to spare victims until now though."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move or blink and my eyes were watering because of it. His words hit me as though they held weight, like they were bricks instead. And I could only sit there and listen. He was lying, he had to be. I couldn't let myself think that she, that June-. No Thomas would do anything and everything he could to ruin me. He was a bastard and he was using June to manipulate me. And Tess, though that was just like her, trying to save more people, that was low of Thomas to bring her into this.

The thoughts brought back that old anger. How dare he dirty June's memory like this? Thomas had known her since she was little. It was disgusting. My eyes landed on the gun and the tension in me loosened a bit. I was at a disadvantage here. I couldn't do anything until the train stopped. Until then I'd have to play along.

"So where is she now, if you're telling the truth?"

"I helped to get her out of the Colonies and brought her over to the Republic, near the coast. She's waiting for you at a train stop right now." I wanted to roll my eyes.

"You left her in some goddy train station? Half the Republic is crying their eyes out because of her. She'd get mobbed." Even when he was lying, Thomas was an idiot.

"Don't worry. June was very careful. She has a disguise and everything. I doubt even you would be able to recognize her now." A likely story.

There was a screech as the train pulled to a stop. I threw out my hands, trying to catch myself and almost failing.

"Looks like we're here." He turned to throw open the heavy metal door. This was my chance. I could tackled him from behind, steal his gun. It would only be a matter of pulling the trigger and I'd be free. I could get back to Eden and my apartment. The Republic could deal with Thomas or maybe Anden would be kind enough to give me the honors. The thought brought a smile to my face and I twisted the ring twice.

But just as I was about to do it, run at him and end this sick charade, something in me paused. That glimmer of hope, the one that I'd been so desperate to extinguish, it was flickering back into existence. It was making quick work of me, burning everything it touched. Because it knew and I knew that I couldn't do it. I'd never be able to live with myself if what Thomas said was true. It was only a second, a moment of indecision, and that was all it took for Thomas to throw the doors open.

Light poured in and blinded me. My hands were up, trying to shield my face as I blinked away the brightness.

Before I could think about going after Thomas again, my vision had cleared. And there, sitting on a bench just inside the station was a girl. She wore a dress that fit in well with the coming summer. It was made of a thin fabric, died a soft shade of pink. Blonde hair fell to her waist but was pulled back from her face with a head band. In her hands there was a book. But her eyes were scanning the train cars that had stopped.

The girl in all she was, was the opposite of June. Her eyes met mine and my legs went numb again. Because those eyes, they were hers.

JUNE:

I have to say that I hate being in disguise. The dress made my legs prickle with goose bumps and this hair of mine, I longed to tie it back. With a sigh I straightened the head band for the 27th time that day. The book in my lap was horribly boring, something I'd been forced to read by Metais a few years ago. But it didn't matter much what the book was or what I was wearing, or even that I'd gone as far as to dye my hair. What mattered was that the train was going to come any second now.

I knew that Thomas was going to have a hard time getting him here. Not only because he was under lock and key thanks to Anden but also because Day was in the dark about a lot of things, one of those things being me.

My hand shook as I turned the page, the skin paler then the paper. It had taken me weeks to recover from the plague and injuries caused by it, not to mention putting this entire operation together. I hated not knowing how he was doing. He hadn't returned to work yet or the living it seemed, since he came back from the Colonies. A wave of grief washed over me at the thought. If I'd been in his position, if it had been Day that had died. I went to twist the ring that was no longer there. I almost laughed at the motion that was now so natural to me.

After a few more pages my head jerked up at the sound of a train. It was one of the older models, the kind that still jerked to a stop and were rusted around the edges. The newer ones, ones used in larger cities, were quiet and much faster. They were also heavily searched and under strict guard day and night. To get onto one of these antique trains was much easier. I couldn't have Thomas, who was up for war crimes, get caught before he could bring Day to me.

The train pulled to a complete stop and a little ways down the track a door was pulled open. Thomas stood in the light and started to get out but I wasn't looking at him and his wrinkled uniform. I only had eyes for the boy that had hair that now matched my own. It had grown back, his hair. It was now a boyish military cut and I found that I preferred it long. His shoulders seemed broader in his civilian clothes, the kind of clothes I'd met him in, all cotton and canvass. His collar was creased wrong and I folded my hands to keep them from wanting to fix it. The buttons to his shirt were at least correct, though the shirt itself was untucked. His boots were military grade, shoes that I think he liked more then he'd ever admit. He was glaring at Thomas, something I found very funny and very sad all at the same time. The light caught his hand, he was wearing the ring and my breath caught. It was true, he'd been mourning me.

Guilt filled me up but I squashed it quickly. I didn't need that right now. At the moment I needed to show him I was alright, that everything was fine…alive. I looked at him, pleading that he see me through the hair and the clothes, that he would somehow know who I was with just a glance. And he saw me, he really saw me. His eyes, that strange electric blue, they widened. Thomas shoved him out of the train car and Day almost fell over. Once on his feet he made his way to me.

I wanted to run out to him. I wanted to see if I was correct and that he really was only 67 steps away from me. But I had to play the part. I couldn't go running after him. He was Day, hero of the Republic, not that many people would recognize him in those clothes. Most people knew him as a military man now. Thank goodness Thomas had had the insight to steal a Republic's military uniform. I didn't even want to know what would have happened to him, walking out in the Colonies' clothes.

But I couldn't draw attention to myself. I was no one, sitting here, waiting for a train, reading. Day seemed to understand. His once almost run changed quickly to a simple, if not impatient walk. He shoved his hands in his pockets, a weak way to show just how casual he could be. There were few people at the station but one could never be too careful.

He took each step to the platform carefully slow. He was whispering under his breath, what it was I couldn't tell. If it had been me I would be counting seconds, trying to make it all seem normal. And there he was, my light, standing there, right in front of me. He smiled and took the seat next to me. He didn't say a word as Thomas continued into the station and to the ticket counter. I forced myself to finish reading the page I was on before I turned to him.

"I liked your hair better before." I almost laughed at him right then and there. Of all the things he could have said.

"I kind of like it like this. It reminds me of a certain someone." Day took a lock of it and rubbed it between his fingers, as though to check that it was real.

"People would have a hard time picking us out of a crowd. You'd be mistaken for a boy." He frowned at this, as though it was the greatest injustice he'd ever heard.

"I'd rather be mistaken for a boy then be forced to wear this ever again." I yanked at the ridiculous dress I'd been forced to wear. Day glanced down at it, as though noticing it for the first time.

"You're right. I like you much more in that military uniform of yours. It suites you better." For some reason that line made me blush. I wanted to bang my head into the wall behind me. Instead I reached out for his hand. My fingers traced the ring on his finger, the cold metal sobered me, pulled me back to just where I was.

"You kept it."

"Of course I kept it. And I'm going to keep that promise too, don't worry." His eyes were too deep it seemed, he was thinking too much. The guilt rose in me again and threatened to choke me. "I'm so happy, June, I thought-" He gripped my hand as though it would slip away from him. "I'm sorry, this whole thing it was my fault. I should have-"

"Daniel don't worry. Everything is fine. We won, both of us. The Republic won, we're safe." He shook his head and let go of my hand. He slipped the ring from him and placed it in my palm.

"This is yours and I'm sorry. I should have never said those things, from before." A jolt ran through me, as though I was the train that had just stopped. He was talking about that other time, the time from what felt like years ago, the time that he told me he hated me. The words he'd spoken had burned me but I understood now, he was trying to protect me, my light. "I take it back June, all of it. I take back those words." He glanced at me and seemed to tense up in his own skin. He was waiting for judgment.

My fingers found his hair. I was so happy that it had grown back so quickly. It brought a warm kind of comfort with it.

"Day, I never blamed you in the first place, don't you worry." He let out a breath of air. It wasn't of relief but more of all that emotion. The emotion that had been building up in him, the sad stuff that takes over when someone dies. He gave me that crooked smile of his and he kissed me.

Thomas came by later and was polite enough to not comment on my disheveled hair and Day's shirt which had a few new wrinkles in it, not that anyone would notice. We, to everyone else, were simply a very happy couple who were glad to meet each other…and kiss each other…and take off annoying head bands that both parties deemed silly. We were so engrossed in trying to keep the make out session from Thomas that I forgot my book. Not that I found it as a great loss. It wasn't my favorite, the plot was very depressing. In my opinion Victor Hugo should have written a different ending.

THE END

That's it :D I hope you guys liked the ending. I would like to thank my wonderful beta, jabberjay who is so patient and deals with all my craziness. I would also like to thank everyone who read, favorited, reviewed, and followed me. You guys rock! This was very fun to write. You guys might be hearing more from me so keep your eyes peeled for more to come.