The Test

Epilogue

After
She climbed to her feet amidst the dust and the blood and the bodies of the dead.
I would remake the world, he once said, for you.
We are free, the girl thinks now, linking her fingers, bruised and bloody, with the boy's who stands beside her: the boy who almost died to remake that world for the girl he loves.
We will remake the world.
~
Ten Years Later

"Morning, love," Luc says, sleepily from beside me in the bed we salvaged from the wreckage of the old world. It is rickety and creaks when one of us shifts our weight, but it is ours, as is the new loft room and tiny apartment we found the bed in, abandoned by its previous owners. It's not too far from the compound, now destroyed, most of its residents scattered, but we are alive and safe, and that is what matters.

I smile, curving towards him, settling into his side, the space into which I fit so perfectly. He turns to look at me, echoes my smile when he sees it on my face, brushes away a lock of hair that falls into my eyes.

"We're meeting Frex and Vi in half an hour," he reminds me. "We have to get up." he grins. "As much as we don't want to."

"I know," I say, sighing. I roll over to my side of the bed, preparing to get out, but he puts a hand on my bare hip and trails it across my stomach to stop me, a jolt of electricity flowing from his skin to mine. The gold band on his fourth finger glints in the morning light. "Anya," he whispers, voice low and gentle, eyes searing into mine. "I love you." He holds me so gently, protectively, his hands curved around me as if he wants to keep me safe from all the harm in the world. But there is no harm. Not now.
I smile as I turn back towards him. "I love you, too."
~
About an hour later (than planned - we got a little... distracted), we stand at the foot of a building in Uptown, staring up at the foreboding black glass and shivering in the biting wind. Luc offers me his coat, which I decline with a smile. I've survived much worse than a cold wind. I'm sure I can survive it now.

As I look up at the building, I remember the nightmares that plagued me ten years ago, nightmares that have only recently gone away.
I remember Bianca's story of this place, how they forced her to hack into computer systems and hunt down the Genetics she found.

I remember my holograph simulation, so long ago, of a building just like this one. A scene of an alternate reality that is scarily close to the one Bianca described. I can't help wondering, as I have many times since then: if I'd passed my Test, what would have happened? I'd probably be dead, that's what. I'd probably have been part of the army drafted in to kill the Genetics. But I didn't. I'm here. Standing before the building that housed the government, beside the man who holds my heart. My husband. My Luc.

Frex and Vi come round the corner, breaking into matching smiles when they see us. I embrace Vi as if I haven't seen her in ages - which I haven't, I remind myself; she was in
England (a country that has never heard of Genetics, thankfully) for her honeymoon - and Frex like he's my brother.
Almost. He was our best man, though.

"Shall we?" I ask, nodding towards the doors. Vi grins, Frex nods, not letting go of vi's hand. Luc just blinks. I can read his assent in his eyes; we have no need for words.
I open the door and ascend the stairs, the glass on all sides still as unnerving as when I saw it in the simulation the first time.
The only sound is our footsteps against the stairs, as far as possible from the ringing, oppressive silence that greeted me before. Then, I held a knife. Now I hold the hands of my husband and best friends.

We reach the top and follow the maze of corridors, eventually reaching the room Bianca described. I open the door, stunned to see the computers cleared away and sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows. People mill around with drinks, laughing and happy.
People from the Compound.
I notice Bianca and Callum, standing close and talking. Huh. Alina looks lost - both her brother and her boyfriend are gone, but only one is dead - and I gravitate towards them. "Hey," I say, putting smiles on all their faces as they see me. Alina gives me a hug, looking relieved.

"Sorry we're late." I say apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," Bianca says, grinning. "How are you?"
"Good, good. You?"
She smiles and looks at Callum. There's definitely something going on there. "Never better."

I can't help but notice the shadows in her eyes, though. Losing your brother after you've only known him a few weeks is hard. I still remember almost losing Luc, and the even worse pain of losing my mother to Zach's bullet through her head. But on the bright side, she doesn't resent me for killing him, so maybe it wasn't my bullet that hit him.

I shiver, blinking back tears. I can't cry, not today. Not over that.
Luc notices, though, and glances at me, concerned. You ok? His eyes say.
Yeah, I'm fine. I will be in a minute.
He puts his arm around me and everyone smiles knowingly.

"So, any news yet?" Bianca and Vi corner me after the usual pleasantries. Vi winks and looks down at her belly for emphasis.
"No," I laugh. "Not yet."
"Damn," Vi says, looking sad. Bianca frowns.

"I know. But I'll tell you the second there is," I promise them.

Just then, a voice rings out.

"Everyone, the inauguration ceremony will begin in ten minutes."

We dutifully take our places around the stage erected in the far corner of the vast room. I mean, it did used to house several hundred computers.

Luc's hand links with mine and squeezes. He smiles at me as I squeeze back. "I love you," he whispers, never missing an opportunity to remind me.
"And I you," I whisper, just before Knox comes out onto the stage.
He looks right at me and Luc. Of course. I grin and give him a salute.
"Good morning, Mr President."

~
A few weeks after Knox is inaugurated, (which still feels a little weird, even though I know he's a good choice cause he's steady and resolute and good at making decisions - he did run a compound full of people, after all -) I settle in for the long haul on a comfortable, ordinary life.

I find myself thinking about my mother sometimes - I visited her grave (in the courtyard of the old compound, near the bench where Luc told me about the prophecy of the Two Twin Souls) the day after Knox's inauguration, to tell her about it and my new life - but it's getting easier.

I still think about Zach, too, and can't help but pity him. I'm sorry, I catch myself thinking. I'm sorry I couldn't love you. But I loved him more.

As for my father, apparently he got entangled with AntiGen soon after my mother's death, paying the price for their failed "exchange" with his life.
I felt so sad about that when I heard. I never got to say goodbye.

But Luc was there for me, as he was when I'd thought they were dead. And just like then, I was able to pick up the pieces eventually.
Except they actually are dead now.
I can't help it; even though my father died ten years ago, just a few months after my mother, I still break down in tears occasionally.

But now I'm crying tears of joy as I run downstairs from our bedroom into the kitchen of the tiny apartment, where my friends are gathered to celebrate the ten year-anniversary of my parents' deaths.
"Luc!" I cry, running towards him and throwing my arms around him. Vi looks at Frex, alternately worried and stunned - or is that scared? Frex just looks confused.

"What's wrong, love?" he asks, rubbing my back, worried by my hysterical crying.
I break out into the biggest grin I've ever grinned, especially today of all days. "Nothing's wrong!" I say happily, pulling back from the hug and smiling at his expression, which morphs from confused to stunned.

"I'm pregnant!"

THE END