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After Annabelle made her exit, while Jon still had the lighter in his hand and in his mind and Basira was professionally checking Martin over for injuries, Jon tossed it into the hole. He'd already doomed one reality. He wouldn't doom another. As the three of them made their way away from what had once been an unremarkable-looking house on Hilltop Road, in his mind's eye he watched the great web of tape unravel.
When he next had to make a statement, no tape recorder appeared, and Jon knew that he had won. The knowledge tasted like ashes.
Jon let the others discuss what should be done next. Let them have a little while feeling like they had self-determination, like they could set the course of the world. It was the least he could do. The next day, he climbed the stairs alone, killed Magnus alone, felt the power rush into him. It felt good, and he resented that fact.
Martin caught up with him, of course. No, he kept saying, no no no, as if the repetition would give the negation power. The Pupil could have told him how many people all over the world were saying no, how many were wailing it, screaming it, whispering it. None of it mattered.
I can’t believe you’d do this! That you’d leave me like this! You swore to me! You swore to me, you bastard! The words were, and so the Pupil Knew them, far more than he heard them with his ears. Martin said, I told the others to wait, that I would come and get you and we'd do it properly, and the Pupil smiled grimly, because he Knew that was what the lack of the lighter had allowed, that things would have been different if it was still there.
It's alright, Martin, the Pupil said. I'm still me. We're still together. Eventually I'll start to lose power to the End, but until then I'll keep you safe, keep all of our friends safe. Georgie and Melanie can even collect another group, shelter them in the tunnels. I'll turn its gaze away from them.
And while we're doing that, you'll what? Martin asked. Shepherd people towards the End? Kill them off as quickly as you can? Or are you just going to find the nicest people you can and force them to be Avatars?
The Avatars were never really necessary, the Pupil said, realizing it as he spoke. They were a stopgap, because Jonah Magnus wasn't able to keep everything running himself. I can. No more Avatars, no more torturers. Just me.
So, just one torturer, then, Martin said, and he was crying.
I'll go as easy on them as the Eye will let me, the Pupil said, knowing that wasn't easy at all.
I've got to tell the others, Martin said, and he left, and the Pupil used his absence to bring down all the Avatars but Oliver (he still owed Oliver) and sent them all to End domains. It would not have been apparent to an outside observer that he was doing anything, but he was the most outside observer of all.
Martin came back, of course, after some time had passed. Basira wanted to kill you, he said, but we talked her out of it.
You wouldn't have been able to anyway, the Pupil told him. Not unless I allowed it.
I'm still mad at you, Martin said.
I Know, the Pupil told him.
Oh? What happened to staying out of my head?
I can't anymore. I did for as long as I could.
Yeah, figured it was something like that. Martin sighed. I'll be in the tunnels for a while, I think. Don't watch me.
I won't.
If he still could have been surprised, the Pupil would have been surprised that Martin hugged him fiercely then, before he left. It was some time before he came back.
Hello, Jon, Martin said.
Hello, Martin, the Pupil said. It's good to see you.
Was that a joke?
No, just true.
Martin sighed and sat on the floor. The Pupil sat beside him. In his mind, he was still organizing the slow movement towards the End, but as much of his attention as could be spared was there with Martin.
How many have died so far? Martin asked.
You don't want to know that.
No, I don't.
They sat in silence for a moment, and then Martin threw his arms around the Pupil, who cautiously hugged him back.
You stupid, stupid man, Martin said. Or demigod, or whatever. I feel like you've gone somewhere I can't follow you.
I'm right here, Martin, the Pupil said, and it was less than half a lie.
Martin spent more time with him after that. Sometime they would lay together on the cold floor and hold each other and kiss. (Martin said the Pupil's kisses felt like static electricity, but he kept kissing him anyway, so he must not have minded too much.) Sometimes they would talk about the world as it was. The Pupil would do his best to Know the world as it had been, and to talk Martin through places of natural beauty or manmade grandeur or warm hominess. Sometimes Martin would tell him about the tiny bit of the world that he couldn't See, the colony in the tunnels. They weren't thriving, but they were surviving, and most of the time that felt like enough.
There's a couple in the tunnels who are trying to have a baby, Martin told him. No luck so far.
No, the Pupil said. The world doesn't work like that any more, even down there. I'm sorry.
Are any of us even human any more? Or are we just vessels for fear?
The Pupil had a hard time answering that question. What else had humans ever been?
Georgie came to visit him.
How's the prophet gig, he asked, because he hoped it would make her laugh. He was right.
Their beliefs have gotten a little darker, she told him. Some of them want to come and kill you.
They're welcome to try. I'll keep anything from happening to them.
Very generous of you. Georgie sat and patted the floor next to her, so the Pupil sat as well.
I think you might have been right after all, she said. It would have been nice to have the world back, but the maths...
Thank you, Georgie.
You're welcome. She sighed. Melanie asked me to hit you for her.
You can if you want.
She hit him very gently on the shoulder. They sat in silence for a while.
I wish it didn't have to be like this, the Pupil said.
Me too. I'll come visit you again, I just... it's hard to see you like this.
She didn't come back.
It took a long, long time for the scales of power to begin shifting away from the Eye and towards the End. Oliver - the Coroner, now - took up the mantle, and the Pupil realized that he had kept him as he was for a reason.
I know you still have people you love, the Coroner said to the sky. I envy you for that, but I will leave them for last, for your sake.
They both knew that it wasn't quite true. The Pupil would be the second to last, the Coroner the last. The Pupil hoped that maybe, before his patron claimed him, the Coroner would finally be able to get some rest.
Still, the End had not yet eclipsed the Eye entirely, and the Pupil had work to do. He also had time to sit with Martin, talk with Martin, hold hands with Martin.
Could we have avoided all this if I had, I don't know, held on to you tighter? Martin asked.
Not forever. Everything ends eventually. Just ask the Coroner.
The Coroner? You mean Oliver? I thought you made sure the avatars were the first to die.
Except for him. I need him. When the End becomes strong enough that the Eye's power wanes, someone will have to keep things on the right track.
Well... putting that aside... what happens to you when that happens? Will you get to stop being the Pupil and just be Jon again, until the end?
I don't Know. It's been a while since I said that.
I'll say.
Basira came to visit him once. You're a prick, she said. I can't believe you doomed the entire fucking world.
I kept the number of doomed worlds as low as I could.
Basira hit him (hard, very hard, right in the solar plexus) and left. The Eye wanted to defend him, to attack her with drones and cameras and things that looked human and things that used to be human, but the Pupil restrained it.
And Martin came to visit, and Martin came to visit, and the Pupil chose not to tell him when they'd had more time together than they likely would have if the world had never been remade (based on the best available actuarial data). Martin looked a little more tired and a little more haggard every time.
It's going to happen soon, the Pupil said eventually. Terminus is ascending. Stay with me?
Of course, Martin said.
They held each other as the sky outside darkened and the last few lives on Earth were snuffed out.
"I love you."
"I love you too."