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The dust is settling and Roman pans his view across the ruins of the street, dirty white shining amongst the rubble.'Neo...'He breaks into a sprint and skids to his knees next to where Neo lay, unmoving. Reaching out to roll her into his arms, she slowly opened her eyes. The white of her coat was slowly spreading red, and she was struggling to stay conscious, but she reached over to take his hand in her smaller one, shaking. "No...no, Neo you have to stay awake. Can you sit up?"She shook her head, sadly, tucking her face into his side.Roman very gently shifted her up into more of an embrace, holding her tight, not minding how wet his own coat was getting. "I'm so sorry I was late..."Neo pressed a gentle kiss to his neck before resting her head tiredly on his shoulder, a small smile on her face.In the quietest tone possible, leaning in as close as she could, she whispered that she loved him, letting out a wet hiccup, and he pulled her in for a few last kisses as she slipped away, murmuring reassurances between all of them, that he would see her soon, that he loved her, that he was sorry. And when he finally pulled back, she had the softest of smiles on her face, tears drying on her cheeks. He stood carefully, cradeling her in his arms, and as he was about to walk off, he heard a gasp from behind him. Turning around, he grimaced, seeing the annoyingly familiar faces of Ruby and her team coming over one of the piles of debris.
This was the absolute last thing he needed right now. "Can...is there anything-" she began, reaching an arm out. Shifting Neo's body better in his arms, he shook his head. "Sometimes people are just too late, and there's no way to stop the inevitable. I think you've done enough damage, Red. Now if you're not going to finally finish me off, just...just leave us alone. That's all I can ask. We don't need your goddamn help, and there's nothing that can be done anyways." And with that, he turned and walked away to find a nice quiet spot to lay her to rest, and wait for his own time to come.