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Morgan was tired, bleeding and he was like that long before this final showdown. The Apex is slowly devouring Talos I like an oversized trail mix, and it would usually fill Morgan up with pure fear. But not now, not after he’s down to his last moments.
Not when he’s so close to an end.
Alex was raving, swinging his pistol to and fro, but never letting the muzzle move a bit from January. Morgan watched hidden from the staircase, peeping in on those two. He couldn’t understand why is Alex taking the destruction of Talos I so hard. Yes, blowing it up is extreme, loss of the research and equipment a heavy dent to TranStar budget, but surely it’s not so bad to make Alex’s face redder than his suit. “Morgan”, the operator pipes up. “Morgan? Maybe. I see a person who looks like Morgan Yu.”, Alex seethes. “Morgan, be cautious, your brother is unstable.” His vision sways like he downed several bottles of pomegranate moonshine. “Unstable? Is this—Morgan?”
As Morgan approaches the console, his vision sways. The Typhon and N-CN9 "Blackbox" operators sapping his health away into a low single digit. He stumbles and collapses on his knee before the console, his knee snapping with a sickening crunch. Removing his left hand from the waist, he braces onto the table with his right arm, and he presses a bloody handprint onto the screen, a cold calculated confirmation to blow the station up to smithereens. For a moment, his vision blacks out, only to wake up with his hands in front of him, as he subconsciously tried to break his fall. With dwindling strength, he took some time to get up, using the desk and now pale-faced worried Alex for support.
His TranScribe pipes up as Mika and other survivors call for him to join them, but he can’t… or rather he won’t. Using Alex as a crutch, he took a seat on the captain’s chair, as he slowly bleeds out from the various open wounds onto the faux leather chair.
Alex looks at his little brother the same way he looked when they were boys, when Morgan deleted Galactic Conquistadors save file, with a look of utter devastation and pain- “why Morgan? Why did you do this?” Alex pleaded. Morgan’s tongue feels like its leaded and chained, with blood and drool dripping from his dry and cracked open lips like wine over the edge of a broken glass. With a pained, gurgling murmur, Morgan could only wheeze out:
“Jump… in front… of… the train.”
In that moment, Alex immediately understood, how serious it was, and how seriously Morgan took those first tests with Bellamy, and his pale face morphed into an anguished grim visage. His brother, his beautiful, brilliant, dying brother, whom he’d guard from all harm possible-
Is willing to kill himself to save mankind.
January has docked beside Morgan’s legs, using the last of his strength to soothe his dying creator as they both die, humming a little soft tune from Galactic Conquistadors. Alex observes the macabre sight and momentarily decides to join them. He drags an ottoman so he can sit too, goes to the cabinet, whipping out 2 glasses and a bottle of Old Sardar Bourbon, “It’s my fault, I gambled too much. And the worst part? It isn’t losing the station… or the tech. It’s you”, and with that Alex hands out a glass filled with bourbon to Morgan, whose waning grip barely holds onto the glass. His facing taking an ashen, pale color, his eyes glossing over from blood loss and pain.
As time runs out, Alex turns to observe the Apex devour Talos I through the looking glass tech. With a solemn salute to the broadcast of the station, he tips the glass, draining the modest amount of liquor.
But another glass tips over, spilling the bourbon. “Morgan— “, Alex freezes before he could finish. His brother, his little annoying, genius brother is gone. His eyes forever closed, his face nevermore to flush, his wounds open, but no longer bleeding.
Morgan Yu, the lead brilliant doctor aboard Talos I, is dead.
Alex’s eyes widen before they’re filled with tears, and quietly picks up his TranScribe, calling Sarah Elazar. “Elazar, this is Alex. Morgan… won’t be joining you on the shuttle, and neither will I.” With shock and rage Elazar shouts “and why not? The shuttle is primed and ready! Just get down here and—“”Morgan is dead, Elazar…Sarah, Morgan is dead.” He can hear Mika sob, and shock from Igwe and Cool. Sarah remains quiet, before slamming her fist twice against the door of the shuttle.
He can hear Mikhaila scream and fight, probably restrained by the many of the security staff Morgan rescued, and feels a pang of guilt. If only he didn’t put Morgan in the center of the test, if only Morgan never suggested it, if only he fought Morgan harder…if, if.
A new screen pops up across of him, the one Morgan used to blow up the shuttle ‘Advent’. Same timer, same blow up option. In the end, he just gets up, positions Morgan’s corpse as though it’s still alive, making it more comfortable. He still believes Morgan will wake up, and grumble at his stiff neck, so he cozies him up to pass the time before the bomb goes off.
“…I would’ve let him go, in the end. No significant Typhon neuromods, no significant danger to Earthside. I would’ve let him go…” was the last January said before dying off with a whine, the bits and pieces in him stopped whirring and working.
With that, Alex was truly alone.
Angered and left without a want, he started off his bitter eulogy, facing his brother’s corpse. “This is the work TranStar does. Every employee. Working together. It is immortality…And it is beautiful… Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. But today… was a gift, I’m sorry it ended this way… Goodbye Morgan, it’s finished.”