if the stars weep [ike o'nyle's end]

If the stars could weep,
they'd weep for you.

Red liquid, thick with the life of Ike O'Nyle attached to a string, intertwining the world together with past, present and future. Drowning in the inevitability of loved and lost, where stars mourn with weeping words of a dead love and a dead man. Ravaged bones hollowed out by death herself, scooping at the insides of his connections, pulling and pulling farther into this pit of despair that only Ike O'Nyle knew.

He didn't want to die like this.

Except, he knew this was the only conclusion for him.

If the stars could weep,
they'd weep for us.

Enveloped by the reddish burst of pain, the blaster shot straight to the heart where Jacob Fel lives. The ache of a moon's rotation over the horizon of the earth echoing across his skin, where the red threads hold him in the air for longer than it feels, dropping to the reality of death as if he were just a stone falling into an endless ocean, rippling the effects of a life gone. Plummeting farther and farther down into the space where Jacob Fel had went, where he'll land softly with a thud against metal grounds and cold steel.

Except, he's caught up in the arms of a beautiful world he revolves around.

His heart beating in the only way it could. Terrified of the other side of what was love and life and now. Eyes meet eyes as the empty expanse of brown leaves desire in his form, the cries of a beep from somewhere too close and yet so far enter his ears. Ike O'Nyle was a dead man, floating in this abyss of love and death. Trust destroyed in a matter of a day, but he can't let himself break. Jacob's eyes hold him for a little too long before he can feel himself trying to speak.

Words echoing across his skull, but only being swallowed whole by lips of desire.

As if death were kissing the last of his life out of him.

The warmth spreading throughout his body as wetness falls from his eyes, floating in the air with the red threads of Ike's life, glittering with these morbidly beautiful stars he has created. The expanse of his injured body clutching to Jacob Fel for life, holding onto the last thread of humanity residing there, in front of him. Salted lips, bruised bodies, and bloodied wounds, they dance with the orbit of a world and a moon, so far and so close together. A reminder of what could have been and what will never be.

As soon as it came, fingers let him go, into the darkness.

The sensation of falling coming across his back as he almost dares to shout out to Fel.

"Please,"

If the stars could weep,

"I need you."

they'd weep for the world.

I'm sorry.

The red thread of Ike O'Nyle's life lingers upwards as he drops gently into the emptiness of black, where his vision can only see the soft light of what once was above him. The image of Jacob Fel staring back at him with those swollen lips and hurt eyes attached to his own mind. Trust still existing there. Love still existing there. Except, he can't help the guilt of knowing Klein would be mourning now, with tears of his own. Wet drops of a star forming in his eyes as Ike breaks his heart over and over again, leaving behind two broken boys in this world.

"Don't weep for me, weep for the stars."

If the stars could weep,
they'd weep for Ike O'Nyle.

The glittering of red stars grow smaller and smaller as the pain in his chest fills the air with a brightness he can't see. A numbness of wind mixing with a cold he couldn't remember being there. The fall of a boy who just wanted to be nothing more than a boxer. A boy who's falling into a pit of his own doing, sacrificing everything for a legacy. The cost of his own life being rewritten in the stars of an inevitability he had already known.

Emily prolonging his life, just to make him learn the valuable lesson of regret.

One day, his mother will stop crying over him. One day, his father will drown his grief in the bottom of a bottle. One day, Klein will marry a person worth more than Ike O'Nyle. One day, Jacob Fel will find what he's looking for. One day, Claudio Markham will meet Ike again. One day, Kassandra Nerys will come up with a correct prediction. One day, Nell Cyprus will find the peace she needs.

Ike O'Nyle will only find an escape from the regret, where the red string of his own life won't stare him in the face and show him where he went wrong. He'll find them all once again in another life. Another place where he can stop regretting and find a peace where he can breath for the first time without letting his thoughts bleed through. A whisper of a beep rings over the edge as he smiles up to Emily, who's smaller than an ant now. The light of her red eyes staring at him before the stars of his own creation disappear and all that surrounds him is the emptiness of black and the feeling of a free fall.

Emotions tied to the stars that glitter with red and brightness that he can't quite reach.

The breath on his tongue, heavier than before.

The choked silence of a free fall into the void of emptiness that he created for himself.

If the stars could weep,
they'd weep for a new start.

The icy chill runs through his body with an electric pulse before his breath hangs heavy in the air, eyes drifting closed where all he can see is Jacob Fel and the red string that ties them together.

Don't.... weep.... for.... me...."

There's no impact.

There's no crash.

Everything is quiet for once.

No breaths.

No tears.

No stars.

Only peace.

---

"The stars don't weep anymore."

Silence.

"Beep!"

Silence.

"I love you, dumbass."

Silence.

"You'll snap back like a rubber band, Ike. You always do."

Silence.

"You'll have to earn it, O'Nyle."

Silence.

"We love you."

Silence.

---

As the quiet pours over him, he can feel something warmer burst through his skin. A feeling rising through his body with a complete change in his being. The roaring sound of wind rustling through his hair and the sound of laughter in the distance. There's a bright light behind his eyes, with a reddish glow of something new. Slowly, he lets himself breath. The air filling his lungs ever so slowly before he lets his eyes droop down, the sun shining back at him.

Fields of lavender fill his noise as he brushes his hands across the green and lilac colored plants. A fresh breath of air in his lungs as he stares into the vast sky above where a sun and a moon reside together. The warmth of a summer day filling his entire body with a new warmth he can't describe. The laughter echoes from across the field where children run around with those big and innocent eyes. The smile on his lips as he can feel the thread connecting them to him.

They laugh with the sun shining down on them as a small boy with blonde hair stares from the side with curious eyes. The string flowing from Ike to him with those curious eyes and lopsided grin. The way the kid stares at the other children running around with their laughter and happy grins. A ball of some sort being passed between them as if they could kick their joy into it. Ike's quiet as he moves closer with the silent steps he takes.

The bench appears where the boy is sitting and the field disappears into a graveled road, where kids play and his mother used to stay. The little blond boy stares for a little too long at the ball and one of the kids before looking away quickly with anxious eyes and a worried heart. Ike stops for a moment as he sits down next to the kid, watching the kids play and the laughter rise. The warmth in his chest ever present for a little too long before he finally breaks the air with his gravelly voice.

"You should go play with them."

Innocent eyes stare back at him before the boy looks to his hands. Anxiety in that body as clear as day.

"It'll be okay, I promise."

Silence.

"They want you to play with them."

The boy stares softly at the ball before looking back to Ike.

The grin on Ike's lips spreading wider before he places a hand on his head, ruffling the little boy's hair.

"Go."

As the day grows longer, the boy gets up with a smile and disappears to the group of boys with laughter in his voice. They pull him into the game before anyone else can say anything. A silence fills the area as Ike stays, watching for a little longer than he had expected to, but as time passes. The little boy looks back to where the older man had been, but no one was there. No sight of the guy who had made him no longer afraid.

Another boy speaks up and his attention is taken back to the game.

"Hey, can we go play in the lavender?"

If the stars could weep,
they'd weep for a new beginning.