[ Hughes promised to be the one in Roy's shadow, waiting to push him up to the top, but he'd warned Roy, hadn't he? There had to be someone else to brace him if something happened. There had to be someone else willing to push when Maes can't, and it feels so viscerally urgent now. ]
They're making a circle. [ He barely chokes it out, the injury stealing the breath out of his lungs, his hand falling away from the chest wound. His vision blurs and his fingers dig into Roy's shoulder, sharp and urgent and desperate. He needs to stay on his damn feet. His own two feet. He needs to keep walking. ]
Turning the whole city into— [ A gasp, a hand flying to the wound in his chest again, the radiating pain that starts in his chest and surges outward. But he drags his feet, one foot in front of the other. ]
I can't. [ His voice is nothing but gravel now, sweat stippling his brow where the blood hasn't been smeared. ] Roy— [ Sharp, commanding, a side of Hughes that rarely shows itself but there it is in the form of a bleeding, shaking, dying man. ] You've got to stop this. Them. [ A ragged inhale, shallow exhale. ] I'm sorry.
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They're making a circle. [ He barely chokes it out, the injury stealing the breath out of his lungs, his hand falling away from the chest wound. His vision blurs and his fingers dig into Roy's shoulder, sharp and urgent and desperate. He needs to stay on his damn feet. His own two feet. He needs to keep walking. ]
Turning the whole city into— [ A gasp, a hand flying to the wound in his chest again, the radiating pain that starts in his chest and surges outward. But he drags his feet, one foot in front of the other. ]
I can't. [ His voice is nothing but gravel now, sweat stippling his brow where the blood hasn't been smeared. ] Roy— [ Sharp, commanding, a side of Hughes that rarely shows itself but there it is in the form of a bleeding, shaking, dying man. ] You've got to stop this. Them. [ A ragged inhale, shallow exhale. ] I'm sorry.