SPOILER ALERT! This contains some deep lore that’s subject to change. It lacks context or explanation, but there are things in this that won’t be revealed in canon for a looong time. You have been warned!

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Sylvyx was particularly disoriented and confused. He sat in the center of the diner parking lot, legs crossed, staring out into nothing. It hurt, seeing him like that. Seeing the facade of the man I once loved now in the hands of a lonely child who’d known nothing but cruelty and brutality. I wanted to love him. I wanted so badly to feel like I did before when he was Sylus, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. It hurt horribly.

I made my way outside and stood beside him.

“Hungry?” I could barely speak.

“No.” He replied. Same voice, different person.

“Tired?”

He sighed. “Very.”

“Me, too.” I breathed.

He looked up at me. The eyes I’d loved so much now belonged to someone else. The gaze I’d grown so fond of was no longer the one I knew.

“Here.” I offered him my hand.

He stood up and stared at my gesture.

“Let’s go for a walk.” I continued.

He shook his head. “I am not him.”

“I know. Still, let’s go for a walk. You and I. Sylvyx and Jeron.”

His gaze lifted to my eyes. I desperately hoped my welling tears evaded his notice, but the way his face contorted told me otherwise.

“I’m sorry.” He choked.

“Don’t be. It was inevitable. We knew Sylus was temporary. We,” I cleared my throat, “we knew.”

He stared at me with those piercing violet orbs. “I remember love.”

“Yeah?” I forced a laugh.

“He was much like you. Eons and lifetimes ago.” He looked to my outstretched hand again. “I killed him.”

I closed my eyes and closed my fingers. “It wasn’t you, though, was it?”

“Does it matter?” He forced a weak laugh of his own. “The last thing Ennea saw was my face as he was wiped off the face of the universe. The last thing he felt…” He squeezed his stomach. “I-I don’t want to exist anymore.”

I thrust my hand into his and closed my fingers around him. “Let’s go for a walk.”

He nodded stiffly.

I practically dragged him up the precipical coastline until we were far enough out of town that the ambient light no longer obscured the night sky. The moon was a massive glimmering orb of white shimmering light. Its face reflected across the dark ocean surface.

“Here.” I motioned to the ground. I sat down and brought my guitar around front.

He remained standing.

“Sit, Sylvyx.”

He sighed and sat down beside me. A remnant of Sylus probably. He stared emptily out into the depths of the sea. I didn’t know who he was. I had no idea who I was sitting next to, I just knew that once upon a time that face brought me so much joy. His smile, his laugh, the crease at the corners of his eyes, the way his ears lifted with his grin, his thick sideburns, the stubble on his jaw, the soft, caring look in his alien eyes. Sylus. He was sitting next to me and he didn’t even know me. But that wasn’t fair to say, was it? Sylus was gone. I had to accept that. Maybe I’d never love Sylvyx like I wanted to, but I could at least try to be his friend. I knew enough about the creature’s past to know how utterly lonely it had been.

I fingered a few notes that began to sound familiar. A song Sylus and I had sung together once. My tenor to his baritone. A serenade of peace in a cacophony of chaos.

“And I give up forever to touch you ‘cause I know that you feel me somehow.” I glanced at his vacant gaze. “You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t want to go home right now.” He winced. “And all I can taste is this moment and all I can breathe is your life and sooner or later it’s over and I just don’t wanna miss you tonight.” He tilted his gaze to the moon. “And I don’t want the world to see me cuz I don’t think that they’d understand. When everything’s made to be broken I just want you to know who I am.” He closed his eyes and I paused the music. “You okay?”

No answer came. He just stared, unseeing.

I started playing again.

“And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t coming,” his face was a blank, empty slate, “or the moment of truth in your lies.  When everything feels like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive.” His eyes closed. “And I don’t want the world to see me,” I closed my own, cause I don’t think that they’d understand. When everything’s made to be broken,” I looked at him, “I just want you to know who I am.”

No response. I resumed idly playing, realizing I wasn’t reaching him at all. I was in so much pain. My heart and soul ached as I played every note, but I couldn’t stand the thought of silence. The harder my heart beat in agonizing misery, the more I ramped up. It felt like rage, like anger, frustration, but it wasn’t. That’s what I expected, but that’s not what it was. It was hope. Desperate and weak, but it was hope. As I crescendoed to repeat the chorus, I closed my eyes and opened my mouth.

“And I don’t want the world to see me.” It wasn’t my voice. I dropped the melody and turned to him. “‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand.” He wasn’t singing, but rather speaking slowly, his voice shaking terribly, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. “When everything’s made to be broken,” I stared at him in disbelief, “I just want you to know who I am.” He gazed up at the monstrous moon above.

“Sylus?” I could barely utter his name.

“And I don’t want the world to see me,” his voice grew stronger with every word, “‘cause I don’t think that they’d understand.” The melody, though practically shouted, was clear in his cadence. “When everything’s made to be broken,” he stood up and whipped his military cap off and into the sea, “I just want you to know who I am.” He spun around to me, arms outstretched.

An uncontrollable gasp burst from my lungs. It was him. It was Sylus. Not Sylvyx or Qaitax or anyone other than the man I loved with all my heart. I burst to my feet beside him as I began playing again. His hands clasped my shoulders. All of my love, all of my heartache swelled into our voices joining together.

“And I don’t want the world to see me, ‘cause I don’t think that they’d understand. When everything’s made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am. I just want you to know who I am. I just want you to know who I am.” Our gazes locked, tears streaming down both our faces. “I just want you to know who I am.” He took my face in his hands. “I just want you to know who I am.” I choked up, trapping my voice in my throat. “I just want you to know who I am.” He held out the last note for a long, glorious moment. Sylus. My Sylus.

I trailed off on the guitar as our voices fell silent.

“Sylus?” I croaked.

“Jeron.” He breathed.

“Is that really you?” I flicked a few strings in nervous agony expecting the worst.

He smiled. The same smile I’d come to love with all my heart. “It is, love.”

I sank into his embrace. Feeling his massive arms around me again, feeling the breath in his lungs, the beating of his false heart, the warmth of his flesh. Everything Sylvyx had silenced, everything that made Sylus Sylus was back.

“I love you, Sylus.” I sobbed into his uniform.

“And I, you, Love.”

I shook my head. “Say it.”

He kissed the top of my head and whispered: “I love you, Jeron Miles. From now to eternity. You are mine and I am yours. Together. Forever.”

I squeezed him as best as I could, my arms never reaching all the way around him. He returned the gesture, pressing me against himself.

“Thank you.” I breathed into him. “I missed you so much, Sylus.” I choked back a sob.

“And I, you, love.” He cooed as he ran his fingers through my hair. “And I, you.”

I grabbed the collar of his uniform. “Don’t you ever leave me again!”

“I won’t, love. Never again.”

“Promise me! Promise me you’ll never throw yourself away again because goddammit Sylus Synclaire you are fucking loved.”

He smiled. “I promise.”

“Good.” I pressed my face into his chest again. “Because if you do…”

“You’ll kill me yourself, right?”

“Don’t tempt me.” I growled.

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Then keep your fucking promise.”

“I will, love. I swear it.”

“Good. Because I really don’t want to have to kill you.” I leaned back letting our gazes meet. I brought my hands to the sides of his face. “I’d miss you too much.”

“Well, you see, if I disappeared, and you found me and then killed me, I’ll have disappeared for good forever. See, I feel like that’s counter intuitive to your intentions and-”

I put a finger to his lips and he grinned.

I leaned up and pressed my lips against his. He was more than willing to accept me.

So there I was. Once more in the embrace of my lover under the silver glow of the moon. And I was finally at peace.

Author’s Note: Technically this song could exist in universe, but that doesn’t matter for the sake of this story 💜