The time to shuffle on couldn't have come any sooner. Doctors and nurses wished him well with little more than a grunt in return. Gale had no interest in pleasantries nor in making friends. Not here anyway. There were passing words between them as to what had happened to him, but nothing more than idle curiosity.

Once you'd seen one weird thing you've seen them all. Gale was no different here, whatever the circumstances might've been. They might've had their questions, sure. But all of them faded away in favour of the next person when he climbed into that Mercedes.

It was the people who 'mattered' to him that still had questions to ask. Cory had tried, but she got nowhere. She was still a traitor in his books, and Alban couldn't bear the thought.

The Status quo had returned. With one solemn difference.

He too had a clock over his head now.

"I thought you liked driving?" Alban asked as his father drew a crumpled cigarette from his jacket pocket. After a bit of nursing the small white tube finally stuck straight.

"I do when I'm driving." He took his first glance out the windscreen. It was too sunny out there, he hated it. "Your lane discipline is awful."

"What do you mean? I'm in my lane!" Alban pointed at his mirror. He glanced over at his father, the man was searching desperately for a lighter. What a surprise.

"You might be but I'm in the bloody hedge." Gale grumbled as he finally lit up. Silence ensued for a minute or two, broken only by the faint rumble of the engine and the woosh of scenery whipping past. Gale flicked ash onto the floor, his mind elsewhere.

"Perhaps we should talk, what happened is quite serious." Alban, fiddled his ever present suit. He had no idea how to approach this.

"Everything is being left to you, there is nothing to talk about." Gale grumbled absently. He swore loudly and quite profusely as the car lurched to one side for a moment, and then scowled at his son with bitterness. "Are you having a bloody heart attack now? Keep your eyes on the bloody road!"

"Sorry Dad, I just…" Gale continued to watch him with that piercing glare. Suddenly a smirk covered his face.

"Thought I'd live forever did ya?"

"I always thought if the grim reaper came knocking you'd kick his shins in." Suddenly, from nowhere he'd come back…

His Dad…

"Nah, I'd set the neighbour's mastiff on him…" They looked at one another with equally subtle glances. Watching each other's smiles appear slowly before they both let out a chuckle.

Gale couldn't help but smile inwardly. This was special. He knew where his boy had gotten his hotheadedness from. Them both clashing had been spectacular… But now, Alban was right. There were more important things.

His train of thought ended sharply as he looked down, catching sight of the bottle of familiar brown liquid in his door pocket. The itch at the back of his mind came back. He thanked the stars that they were in the center of town. Alban's thoughts were elsewhere… Or at least they should be. The buzzing began.

He reached into the door pocket and subtly lifted the bottle, unscrewing it like it was an explosive. The noises began to press in.

The handbrake came on with a click. Alban muttered something about "Goddamn pedestrian crossings." He'd caught sight of a cute blonde, like any man his eyes were distracted very suddenly. His whistle was too loud and too sharp.

Gale lifted the bottle quickly. Smells of sweet coal and pepper filled his nose, he hurriedly breathed it in, moments before the neck touched his lips.

The taste was burning. It rapidly consumed his senses, it filled every nerve. It burned through him… Mouthful after mouthful. It was bliss.

Then it was yanked away from him.

"Dad! What the hell do you think you're doing!" His son barked. There it was again, there was the rage.

"What do you think you're doing?" Gale's voice was calm, but the rage in his eyes eclipsed his son's own. A horn honked behind them, giving them the beat that passed. The sounds didn't linger "Don't you ever talk to me like that."

"You've just had a heart attack!" Another horn. Alban scoffed with exacerbation, slamming the throttle aggressively. The Mercedes screeched off the line, slamming them both back into their seats. "Do you have any idea the amount of meds they pumped into you?"

"What would you know?" Gale's eyebrow was cocked. He took another mouthful of the whiskey without another care.

"Considering I was there the whole time you were unconscious, I know a lot more than you do!" They drove on a little longer, before he slammed the brake pedal again, discarding the black Mercedes on the kerb. "There you go, home."

Gale took a slow, lingering look at the open windows of his flat… His kingdom. 'home' was an exaggeration.

"Oh yes, sorry I forgot! Cory said you don't know how to open your damn door anymore!" Alban snatched the keys from the center console, shoving his door open and closing it with a car shaking slam.

Gale watched him skulk away, shoulders hunched and a clear look of venom on his face. He slowly began gathering his few effects. "You need to straighten your back, boy."

He followed suit. Far more gentle shutting the door. He muttered in mild aggravation as to the terrible parking and equally tasteless choice of car in the first place. The street was far from busy, yet those that knew of him couldn't help but glance. Either they were wondering why he was out or why he wasn't dead.

Gale didn't have the answer to either of these questions. He hurried along, taking intermittent mouthfuls of his ambrosia. He stumbled through his threshold and banished the outer world with a sharp slam. Didn't matter who he disturbed. Didn't matter if his keys were now locked out…

He was home.

He plucked a half smoked cigarette, lighting it before it'd left the ashtray. He discarded the small bag of belongings into the kitchen, peeling off the horrendous hospital gown to trade for his much prefered grey shirt and trousers. He stumbled around of course as he put them on, but to him it felt more like dancing. He was home.

He tugged the window shut sharply before the fresh air could strangle him, casting the slight remains of the outer world away. The now empty bottle clattered to the floor next to its many brethren, and it's half drank replacement quickly stepped in.

He continued his stumbling dance through to his living room, he refrained from looking at the mantelpiece, he wasn't ready for that. Instead of catching sight of the blood stained floor and radiator, someone had tried and failed to clean it up. Someone had been interfering with his kingdom.

And there he was. The perpetrator no doubt. Sat slumped in his father's own armchair. Gale couldn't tell what he was up to until he heard the deep breaths. He did say he'd been there the whole time…

He had the thought and he took the odd motion, tugging his jacket out from the young man's back and draped it over his lap. It was nothing special, he wasn't tucking him in at night like he had so long ago.

But what little majesty there was quickly ended. Alban jolted awake, his breathing was heavy, he looked around panicked for a moment before just as quickly calming.

"Pathetic." Gale hissed. He had felt many emotions for his son in recent years. This was the first time he felt disappointment. Alban was still spaced out, by the time he had brought his senses fully together Gale was already shuffling back to his radio room.

"Dad! What?" He called after him. When he'd caught up with him the door was already shut between them. There was no response, and even Alban wasn't brave enough to enter that room uninvited.

"Do you remember it? There was a time we all did…"

He let out a sigh, listening for only a few moments to his father's plea for help. He spoke so highly of it… Something he hadn't had in so long.

How could one be jealous of a City?

He left his father's flat in his own time…

Maybe he'll catch him in the morning.

Gale pushed up off the large fragment he'd taken rest upon. He landed slowly, like he was slightly weightless. He watched the rocks slowly fall to the ground, an air of mysticism filled this place now. The fabric of its world was starting to come undone. He kicked off the ground, his flightsuit spluttered to life. Even it's light seemed that much more dim.

As he ascended the broken base of the once proud spire he could see the desolation befallen upon his world. Few towers still stood, chasms miles wide split the cityscape like cracks upon the very surface of this world. tower's fell into them as they slowly grew wider and wider. Districts fell away and there was now even a new waterfall from the ocean not far away, bleeding out into the world beyond.

Closer examination showed the Districts that had been severed seemed to be drifting rather than falling… They weren't sucked down with the haste that once consumed them, rather they just floated away. The decay gradually consuming them to render them into little more than clouds of debris drifting above, below and around what remained of the City's hulk.

It wasn't dying, it was dead.

But yet faintly, like anything defying the tide of life, it clung on. A faint rhythm, no more than a gentle whistle of wind, not even a heartbeat. It was all that was left, but it was still enough.

Gale felt that drive again he once had, now in a different form no less but it was renewed again. He would not let his world die. Not until he had stopped breathing anyway.

He looked in his palm at that small blue crystal. Its surface was so pure, unbroken and uncracked. No decay dared stain it, not dust impede it. it's light almost danced for him, the only mark of colour in this grey world.

But it wasn't the only thing that appeared truly out of the ordinary.

Wisps of dulled white light, flicked like strands of rope high in the sky, looping back around to themselves, heading back into the distant fog beyond. It was a physical reminder he'd been successful.

The city's anchors were severed, and whilst it might've made it that much weaker, surely that would make it that much easier to save.

He watched the white strands of light for a short while as they danced on an unseen aether. His gaze only lifted when ashes began to descend from high above even that.

He needed help from someone who believed it…

It felt unnatural disengaging his flight suit from this height. Yet sure enough he didn't plummet like he would've a mere couple of weeks ago. He drifted with those ashes slowly to the ground, and as he landed they took the form of her avatar in this world of dying dreams.

"Gale." Carola nodded towards him. She looked stern.

"Carola." Gale quirked an eyebrow, his hand clenched on the shard in his hand. "Have you made a decision?"

"Not one to mess about are you?" She met his raised eyebrow with one of her own. "I'm fine thanks for asking."

"There isn't time for pleasantries anymore. You know that." He cut through it, same as ever. Same as with anyone.

"On the condition we meet on my terms. Belgium. Sint Truiden. Nowhere else." She said firmly. She pointed at him. "Try anything and I'll break you."

"Would like to see you try." He smirked, before quickly carrying on. "I can be at Dover by midday tomorrow, Calais by mid afternoon." He paused, his smirk faded away word by word. "Tell everyone you know of this place."

"Everyone will think I'm mad."

"Welcome to my life." He grumbled.

"Y'know you never said the real reason you are invested in this place." Her eyes narrowed, she made way to the twisted and knurled remains of a buttress. Gale watched her give it a gentle stroke, the metal of its body seamingly untwisting and straightening under her touch. Her faith here was strong, like his was long ago. The fractured stonework underfoot formed into reasonable chunks in her footsteps. She hopped onto the metal beam, landing seated with a refined precision. "You say it's about the honourable cause of 'Save the city for the future', yet you hate the world we live in… So that's not really it… is it?"

"Half right." Gale buried a foot into the dust and fragments underfoot. His aura was barely noticeable now. "I do genuinely fear the day this place isn't here for us… But yet there is a lot more." He grasped for a reason as quickly as he could, hoping she didn't see the disbelief that formed in his eyes. "It holds a significance not even I understand, a will almost. But for me, It has memories here. A Lot of them. Everyone in the world can visit this one place in a heartbeat, I've met people and said goodbye to people here… This is for them."

"Yeah. No. That's bollocks. You think people who can't come here are less than human, I don't buy that. Don't lie to me or this whole thing is over." She spat her words like a mouthful of venom. Understandable really.

"It really isn't, Carola…" He looked at her pleadingly. "That's the best explanation I can give without… Without bringing it all back."

" Help me!"

Gale's expression went vacant for a very, very long time. He didn't stare off into the horizon or gaze at his friend. His eyes didn't care where they landed. It had all come back. It had never left.

it was always there.

He sniffed, snapping himself from that trance, wiping his eyes quickly and as subtly as possible. He wished he'd made a still in all his years here. "It won't matter soon anyway…"

"How so?" The sudden emotion was unnerving. People react irrationally when emotions get involved.

"If we can't save the City then it'll be all over for everyone."

"You really think when this place is gone, that's it?"

"Without being who we are, what will we become?" Gale let out a deep sigh. "I wouldn't want to live in a world where we are all mindless drones. I think the end would come quick for everyone."

"The end? You mean Doomsday? Apocalypse? Dogs and Cats living together?" Carola looked out over the desolate land from her perch. Dismounting, she focused hard for a minute. Beneath their feet the cracks unwound, the debris reconnected, but it was not enough to undo the damage once done.

"Mass hysteria." He muttered smiling faintly at her attempt to bring life back to the City, as well as at the reference. She had hope. Yet when her eye opened again the decay returned once more. It had overrun everything like weeds. Yet still, he swore he'd heard a beat of a heart that was not her own. "Mankind would lose its soul. We can either save this place or destroy it, we have to at least try."

"You got a plan?" Oh how a redundant question to ask, and Carola knew it. She sighed at herself.

"A plan? Now come off it. I haven't the slightest clue what I'm doing." He said with a cynic's smile. "But I have an idea that might work now. We need the whole world to see this place at once… So if we can show it to everyone, all at once… Maybe it'd live again. There's one last anchor holding the City here." He pointed up at the severed strands of light. "They broke when the tower fell. This decay, this ruin was only brought to the City when you all left-"

"Stop referring to me as one of them I'm not. I'm here aren't I? You are not alone." She snapped at his words, drawing a firm line.

"When they left the City." He didn't apologise. "If this decay was caused by the real world then that would imply that the City is weak to it. Fragments of the City have crossed into the real world, so if there is a way to reverse that, bring something from the real world to this one we might be able to sever that last link…" He trailed off. If he could lose his own train of thought how did she have a hope to follow it?

"How do you even know it works that way?" Carola watched him carefully. He pondered for a moment, even starting to answer only to fail just as quick.

"I don't." Gale looked down at the ground. Its pure surface was completely covered, nothing came through of the true craftsmanship beneath. He swept his boot through the thick heaps of broken crystal and dust.

The solid marble slab beneath him was hewn with cracks like shattered glass. Each fracture sundered many small rivers of white silver embedded just beneath its shining surface. He looked back at his companion, she watched him curiously, like she always did. Patient yet wary. "I've tried so many ways. Doesn't matter if it works or not… It's worth every effort for me. If this is one of another long line of failures then at least I can say I tried… But if it works, if we can sever that link and break it free, it is worth however much sacrifice."

"Why use its kryptonite?" She asked, hoping to understand the still, seamingly flawed, logic. She pointed at the remains of the tower. "You did that with a single seater ship, why not find a bigger ship? Why go through the effort of bringing a massive sledgehammer here?"

"Don't think it would be that simple…" He waved her upwards as he kicked off. Ascending rapidly with Carola in close pursuit they came to an eventual hover high over the City's skyline. Its closest edge was now visible, a hard boundary that nothing dared cross. It was natural unlike the broken cliffs at the edges of fallen districts. No, this was where the City was meant to end, right at the edge of the fogbank, with just one single thing spanning it.

The bridge still rippled with colour and light even now. It was alot weaker granted, and many of its own stanchions had collapsed upon it, yet its span was untouched. Even from here it was flawless. Just like the City's distant heart. Just like the World Tree. It would be amongst the last.

Like it was the soil it'd grown from.

"That is the last link." He said simply. "Destroy that bridge, and the city will either die like a limb without blood, or its link would be severed, and all we'd need to do is-"

"Wake up…"

" Wake up!"

They moved off from that point, travelling together across the desolate broadwalks side by side. It was of little note, merely small talk and the simplest of remarks. Yet it held some form of significance to them both. The agreement had been made, there was little else left to do right now.

In the hours that followed Gale would look behind him and swear to see another. The echo of another heartbeat hinted at it, yet never did they approach. Never did they come close.

Yet just like Carola, if they sought answers they'd come in time.

There was some familiarity to this one though, someone he'd met maybe. They never drew close enough to be seen in any level of detail. They merely watched, they merely observed.

Awaiting, with apprehension, as to their next move.