a smile brighter than the sun || cyro's death

Someone has to die.

A single thought vibrates through his skull with the white hot fire of pain; a rush of his own red blood mixing with the salty taste of the air. The last words of an angry broken boy reaching his ears as if the world were fighting against Cyro Krane. A terrible father. A horrible man. The worst piece of shit in the arena. Cyro Krane with a son who volunteered in order to take away everything his son had, as if he didn't know what could happen, but in the end isn't that what determined his death. Just another terrible dad in the mix of terrible parents who break kids hearts with their lack of care, except he always carried Xander like he was at the center of the universe. His heart bleeding red with the ocean below him, eyes staring into Dominic's own.

"My mother left me. I thought that she would come back one day, but she didn't. You know what she did? She sent me a stupid letter. This-" The geode glitters with the red of his own blood, shining with the same crystals from before. "-is sending your son a letter, except it's written on your fucking headstone." The geode hits him hard in the back, everything burns around his vision, red fills his head; hot like a wildfire burning across a desolate land where it's out of control. Eleven had the world against them, but Cyro Krane had the universe fighting against him. A fire meant to burn red, hot and fast, never quite sticking the same way as before.

Landing into the swirling red of what should be blood, but instead is water mixes with the memory of red stained snow; a shovel standing on end where hollow eyes stare out to no one. There's Izar blood in this ocean of tributes, sailing along the tears of the sky striking down to the earth with a pitter patter of broken hearts and memories. Families torn apart by death; left behind in an ocean of red that burns against his back, salt water flushing out the wounds of an angry kid who missed his mother who never came back and a career girl who only knew how to fight and couldn't believe her own eyes. He'll just be another nameless boy from eleven where people will forget him. They'll forget him or worse build an orphanage where his name means nothing more than the name of a place where broken families reside.

"-Xander."

His angel's name spoken out in a flare of red hair, broken bones aching as he tries to reach for Meredith Strauss, but not being able to. Red water flows past his ears, muffling the sound of splashing feet heading away from him. Arabella is the one to end up next to him, where his life burns with the fire trying to fight against the cold grips of black that threaten to come across his vision. Cyro Krane can hear his name. The way Arabella begs him not to leave her burning through his chest. Gentle fingers brushing his hair away, there's tears in her eyes. Fingertips barely reaching out where he can manage; the weakness in his muscles feeling like a chill of red water and tears.

Thumb brushing away tears; a hand brushing away the sorrow in Arabella Shirley's eyes. Her voice echoing along his ears. "This- this feels a lot like you are- like you are leaving me." The echo of his own small smile fills his face, trying to muster up every piece of warmth he can, just to make sure Arabella Shirley doesn't look at him the same way as the rest of the world does. Anger towards a father who left his son to become like Will Johnwayne. Cyro Krane's said goodbye too many times for this to feel normal; the numbness of his own fingers as they fall from her cheek into the red stained waters of the dead.

It's the words he can't hear from her lips that scares him. Words that he can barely make out, but he's dying and he knows he's dying. Slow and painfully dying as if the world wanted him to suffer just one last time for all of the mistakes he was and had. The words of a promise sticking in his mind as her smile comes; warm like the sun, nothing like the rain of this day. It's radiant against him, leaving him blinded by the sheer warmth of a human being who genuinely cares about everyone and he just prays to whoever is listening that she'll be spared of the pain he's going through. Spared of the hardships the world had already been given because Arabella Shirley is what the world needs.

People who have a heart and shine with a sense of purity that no one else can achieve.

"May we meet again."

There's a brokenness to the way she leans over letting her lips press against his forehead, a stinging sensation as the water comes back into the wounds. Fingers brushing his hair like the night before, sending chills through his skin as he doesn't dare cry because Cyro Krane wasn't weak. A father who broke him from a young age to a mother who stood by letting it happen, from a mistake that led to the best thing in his life to the brokenness of the Krane family, and from sacrifice to give the ultimate gift to his son. His angel who would find a home in Eleven's kindness victor. It's painful to realize how much pain he's in, not just from the wounds along his skin, but from the emotional pain of knowing he had to give it all up in order to give his son the world.

"Until we meet again, Arabella."

For a moment, it's a quiet rush of water in his ears as the splashing of a crimson sea lay with him, almost as if he's floating on the pain of eleven. Splashes of memories as the area clears of bodies, the sound echoing away as the sand beneath him is soft from the water. Rain pours with the sound of lapping waves against the shore. Alone. Alone amongst his own thoughts and the forgotten day of tomorrow that'll never come. Fingers splayed across sand as he stares upwards to the clouds knowing he was dying slowly.

Dying slowly amongst a sea of crimson red; broken dreams of a father who wouldn't get to see his son again. Deep down, he knew there wasn't much he could say to Xander. His heart was in the letter left behind knowing that in the end this would be the only option for someone like Cyro Krane. For all of Eleven's curse, Cyro Krane carried the blood of Levi where death had been the only answer for them. Hellemine had been right, he couldn't bare the weight of a curse upon his shoulders. The broken hearts had caught up to him; crushing any chance he had of changing the future for an already broken family.

Everything hurts; an echo of crush bones and bleeding hearts. Cyro Krane's felt the same pain before, but only a slow screech of his bruised body and a father who screamed that he'd never be enough. A mistake since the day he was born, just another mark on a page never quite getting erased away. Born to a family filled with anger and hatred; broken dreams and unloving stares are what he grew up with. The promise of never ending up like his father on the tip of his tongue when he first held Xander's small body against his chest, soothingly praying that he won't fuck up the only thing good in his life.

Tears blossom to life, dripping into the red. Cyro hasn't cried since he was just a boy, hiding under the covers from a fit of angry words. Katelyn Persimmon's smile leaving him feeling like he could still stand up in a world against him. Never quite done pushing against the odds he has been given. There's pain behind his heart; always lurking near the surface of what once was. Cyro Krane was still just a teenager who had to grow up in order to take care of his son. Xander would be crying if he were watching this storm of clouds and red oceans. Drifting along with him, until they both pass out. One fire burning out for good and the other igniting brighter with pain.

It's in this moment where he knows he's going to slowly bleed out into a red sea of dead dreams that he speaks out to Katelyn Persimmon; a victor who gave him hope in a hopeless world, despite all of his anger towards her.

"Katelyn..."

Cyro Krane burns with a fire; red and crimson mixing together with the chill.

"I-I guess you were right."

A painful laugh escapes his throat as he stares up to the sky hoping someone picks up the last words he's ever going to speak.

"I'm nothing more than a selfish father. A-A father who threw away his life for his son, but that makes me a monster to them..."

It flares up in his chest; an echo of his own father in his memories.

"Left his angel behind because finding another way was wrong. Should have suffered in the streets of Eleven according to everyone else. Pain exists in everyone here. Burning away at hearts to justify killing and death."

Will. Dominic.

"I'm going to die... I'm already dying. I-I can't, but I am."

Tears in his eyes as Xander's small form fills his head. The mornings of waking up with smiles that could brighten up the world; a light to those moments where exhaustion always exists, but for his angel, he would do anything it took to keep him smiling like that. Cyro Krane would do anything for his son; including dying for him. Part of him knew the odds, knew that the chances were never in Eleven's favor, and knew that the capitol hated them with the bitterness of privileged lives. Eyes glancing upwards, tears still present as he tries to breath.

"I used to have your posters in my room back before Xander, before my father was avoxed for murder, before I could feel alive. I used to have the mint condition Katelyn Persimmon posters on my walls and in the darkest corners of my room when I'd hide away from the world, I would look at your smile and wish I could smile like that. Smile like the world wasn't broken and tearing apart always."

Fingers grip his cloak, trying to stay conscious, fighting against the pain and the desire to just die. Cyro Krane grips onto himself, clutching at the strings of himself he's unraveling for Panem; For Katelyn. Tears that mix with a red sea of the hundreds of elevens who must've bleed red for all of Panem too.

"He's got a smile like yours. One that brightens up a room, burns down that darkness in the confines of people's hearts."

A smile pulls on his lips as he can feel the blood pooling beneath him into the sand and water. Vasco Izar must be watching. Xander must be watching. Katelyn Persimmon had to be watching. The world was watching Cyro Krane for once; actually seeing him in a sea of red where his heart floats along with the gentle waters. The rain doesn't trickle like earlier in the day, but it pours with the tears in his own eyes.

"Don't let him lose that smile, Katelyn. Don't let him lose that smile ever."

A moment to let the world pause; a stuttering of emotions to fill the empty air.

"I love him so much. Please... Please don't let him lose that smile."

It's in the ocean's waves of red and broken dreams where he loses focus. Sand melting against his skin, where he stares up into the sky, tear streaked cheeks, and a bloody heart. Cyro Krane opens up the walls behind his heart, knowing that he's nothing more than a broken father who made a decision in order to save his son. The world against him; always and forever crushing the weight of him and never letting up. Cyro Krane's suffered more than a boy should; built a life for his angel and watched it burn in a wildfire until it went out from a boy who misses his mother.

It's in the clouds above that he watches knowing that Eleven would cry with him; break down into the unity of Eleven that still existed. Wilson and Vasco would be comforting Xander. Katelyn would have Opal to tend to her heart. Kirito and Harbinger would be able to breath with their own heartbreaks. Arabella Shirley would fight without him. Xander would learn what love really was; burn it into his heart and let it stay there for the rest of his life. Cyro Krane would die in a sea of red and a mournful sky where the clouds grow weaker and weaker, until the sun peeked through just barely.

In that moment, he's barely strong enough to smile to the sky, fingers raised up to block the sun and pretend like he was just laying in a field once more with Amira laughing next to him and Xander napping along his stomach. Fingers ruffling through his hair as he watches his son smile up with the same smile that warmed like the sun. Soft and pure, full of the joy that a kid should carry and not the sorrows he had carried back then. Words leaving his lips as a last breath hits his chest, hand falling softly into the water where the chill of death finally catches up with him.

"X-Xander, I will always love you."

A fire burning out with the smoke of a memory left behind.

The cannon rings out the last tune of Cyro Krane's love.