my golden crown of sorrow [isaac]

The gatlin slices through Parker with little to no effort, and there is a deep sigh that Isaac releases. Guttural, only because he is more tired than anything else. He is haunted by the words mentioned by Parker and by Izzy but they are just reminders that he is still alive. He has been offered the world after all, and that was exactly what he wanted. He deserved to get this far, in fact, he was convinced that he deserved to go all the way. It is not anything new to him at this point. Maybe his father was right. There was a method to his madness.

He lets his guard down, as now he just needs to take a moment to collect his thoughts. He quickly disembarks from mech and looks out into the vastness of the oasis. The threat of Parker, or should Isaac think the mutt, is no longer there. However, it is quiet, and there is just a pool of water not too far from him. Thinking about Izzy, and Kareem, and Bowie all in one foul swoop. They were here what seemed like an eternity ago, and now, Isaac stood by himself. It was a domino effect, and they would all keep tumbling down.

And so he stood firm, the dreamspore starting to wear and wane as he shook his head. The sound of the mutt gargled in the distance, but the noise began to grow more faint as he walked towards it. He never noticed how deep the oasis really went, but maybe that was the point. It was not supposed to feel like a mass empty space that gave off a hopeless demeanor. In fact, Isaac would admit that a couple days ago, he felt safe here. All the way up until he found Kareems body lying in the water.

He walked forward to only see what was left of the mutt fall down the edge of the cliff. However, he did not hear a thud right away. As he continued, he waited for the thud, because he had been told that he could make it out of this alive. His mind replays the words that Hades mentioned, could and would were two different things after all.

His feet stopped at the water, and he looked down at it. A couple moments later, there had been a cannon, and then the face of one of the boys from seven had appeared in the sky. A careening crash could be heard from above, but then a seismic sound could be heard from below. He watched as the water rippled in front of him for a moment. He slipped off the boots that he had been given at the beginning of the games, all torn and tattered from the amount of running he had to do. He noted the dried blood and the placed them to the side as he stepped into the water, it still rippling around him.

Maybe he would be safe in here, or maybe this was exactly the aftermath he had expected to come from all of this. He began to submerge his body into the water, its crisp feeling not rejuvenating him like it should have. Like it did back then. All he can think about is Izzy and how much she lived through any other lens than one that Isaac had. He could still see faint images of her in front of him. The water reflected her face, but it did not speak to him. She was gone and that was all there was to it.

The ripples turned into to splashes as a large calamity had pushed against the ground where Isaac’s feet had rested. The water splashed into his face, but he did not falter. The rocks and the ground became volatile. His eyes could barely focus on one thing before realizing that might have been the point. He took a deep breath, thinking that he might watch half of the oasis crumble right in front of him. A part of him hoped that it wouldn’t, because this was the best place for him to wind up for the day. A day full of solitude and self reflection, right before the finale. It was perfect.

But maybe it was too perfect.

The sound from the cavern had become louder, and the water had not slowed down. It fell from the cracks in the rock that he had been watching appear in the foundation of the oasis. His body felt relaxed, he did not feel like it was in danger. He laid there as he let his body float against the splashing water and let his mind wander. What exactly what he was going to do next.

A loud smash had hit the cliff not too far from him, he did not jolt forward, his mind resting, wondering just what his next move could be. Isaac Le Roux was afraid of nothing, not even letting down his own father. He observed as he watched some stalagmites fell from the top of the oasis and rained a couple meters down from where he was in the water. He realized quickly that this was not going to stay centralized.

That doubt creeped up for a moment, but Isaac pushed it away as he looked back up to think about just how close he was. However, he began to replay conversations in his head, Hades and Parker had been very pointed in their words. The more he thought about them, the more they played in his mind. The world was still falling down around him. This was his world now, no matter how much he tried to justify that this was only temporary. It was. It was not going to last. It would all crumble down like it was right now.

The water around him had started to explode around him. However, he kept his tread, and the water simply rocked him back and forth as he wondered if this was how Kareem had felt when Parker Lachlan had taken his life. Did he turn around long enough to at least see the light fade to black? Did Parker let him get one more glimpse of the world he was in before she watched the light leave his eyes? Isaac did not know, but judging from just how heartless the game makers had made her seem, he could guess.

He heard a large explosion in the distance, and that’s when he noticed that the oasis had come down on his mech. The sound of crunched metal was nothing new to him, his mech taking beating after beating just to keep Isaac as intact as it could. That sound of metal was a warning sign. His eyes were wide open as more of the part of the oasis he was in was starting to disappear, remnants of what once was a tranquil place now rotting away not even ten feet from him.

Isaac took a deep breath as he realized that this place, once restorative and peaceful, had turned into a hellscape and bad omen.

Now it was turning into a burial ground.

It all made sense to him, now being thrown around in the water, but him, still not letting it throw him off his back. He closed his eyes and thought about everything he had done in the games. Had he done enough? Probably not. He was being realistic. But everything that he had done and seen? Maybe that was enough to at least redeem himself in the eyes of his father. This was not anything he come back from. He was putting on a show, but he did not realize until this moment, he was putting on his own finale.

Not one he would survive though.

He did not fight, or scream because obviously the GM’s would not help him in this moment. This had been the plan all along. He was used to pull numbers from the capitol. His death would go down as something prolific and maybe, just maybe, that was all that he could ask for. Isaac figured it would be silly if the GM’s really wanted another Le Roux victor. After all, he had a feeling that it was more fun watching Le Roux’s die then it was watching them conquer.

The capitol was probably going wild.

And in this moment, Isaac had to just accept it for what it was, because he had done everything he had set himself up to prove. The rocks had fallen all around him, none of them on him, but close enough to send him moving in the water. Death was now playing with him, but he refused to move. There was no way it was getting out of here, as he was way too far from the exit of which he came from.

Another rock fell, and soon half the oasis had collapsed on itself. As it began to come down on Isaac, he took a deep breath and he smiled. He saw a hand reach out from nowhere and fixated on this moment, He reached his hand out as rubble had crushed half of his body after what seemed like an eternity. He took one more long, arduous breath, his hand grasping whatever was waiting for him.

And then it all went black.