Alpha.

A smile creeps over her face, her dark lips contouring her gleaming teeth.

"Bravo," I mutter, glaring at the top of the building, her dark silhouette proudly crowning the building at the end of this street, gun frozen out in front of her.

I hold Enva into my chest, the bullet caught between my two fingers.

"I thought you were quicker than bullets, Alpha," Enva remarks, "what's the point in shoot -"

"She wasn't aiming for me."

Enva's eyes swell with shock, and then shrink with horror.

"Enva, you need to leave, you're -"

"I'm you're only weakness, aren't I?" She whispers.

"You're also my only strength. You must go," I mumble, tightening my eyes shut. She must go, but I can't find myself able to release her from my grasp.

She slips out, backing away. "How will you find me again?"

"Just give me a shout, and I'll come running."

She nods her head, her speed gently picking up pace the further away from me she gets.

Bravo jumps between the buildings, sprinting over their edges and begins dropping down windows until, eventually, she reaches the ground. Her eyes haven't stopped glowing yet.

"Really a good idea to target me so early on, Bravo?"

"Under normal circumstances, I'd say no."

"What kind of circumstances are these, then?"I smirk.

"That girl. She'll be the death of you. Even if I don't manage to kill you now, Charlie will."

"She does not make me weaker."

Bravo suddenly smites me across the face, and I'm sent skidding down the street, the pavement tearing up my flesh and clothes. "It's your fault they forced us out!" She screams.

She's so fast. "It's not my fault! You know exactly why the Crazies didn't want us anymore! Delta was -"

She's suddenly on top of me, pinning my down with tears spilling from her eyes. "Delta was not the cause of all this. It was you, Alpha!"

"I was the only one of the top four who didn't kill anyone," I mumble.

"But you did kill Zulu."

I grit my teeth, grabbing onto her shoulder, and slamming her into the tarmac, forcing myself up onto my knees, and literally just sitting on Bravo.

"Get off me!"

"I did not kill Zulu because of Enva! And don't you dare suggest it," I growl, developing into a croak.

"Then why'd you kill her? If you really wanted to, and you maybe went about thing's a little more logically, you could've kept Zulu alive. Zulu would need such a small about of Valens to stay alive for years and years to come. If she had just a little, and you had the rest, you could've easily lived almost an average amount of years."

"Because I knew I couldn't protect her. She was always too good for me."

"And you think Enva isn't?"

"No. But killing Zulu made me realise I had to protect her. And, if I didn't kill Zulu..."

"Somebody else would, and you couldn't bare that, could you?" She screams, scratching and clawing at me, trying to escape out from beneath me.

"No, I couldn't."

"You shouldn't have got Enva involved in the first place."

"How was I to know this would all happen if I didn't kill her?"

"It was your limits that brought us to this, Alpha!" She cries, grabbing one of my knees and throwing me off. "It was you and that damn girl!"

"You still believe what the Crazies told us?" I say quizzically.

"They've treated me a lot better than anyone else ever did."

"What about Foxtrot? Foxtrot cared for you like a real sister would, Bravo," I insist, rubbing the blood from my lip.

"Foxtrot thought I was a monster."

"And India?"

"She's crazier than any of the Crazies ever were. Completely delusional."

"Yet you stuck up for her so much?" I question.

"Once upon a time. Once upon a time we were all just twenty-six children who happily received Valens. What happened?"

"We wanted to be normal, Bravo. Me, Charlie, Delta and Zulu all wanted to be normal."

"And Enva was your escape," Bravo nods. "You make me sick."

"I'm surviving this to be with Enva, Bravo."

"No," she whispers, biting her lip and wiping her tears, "you're not."

Her eyes don't even show hints of dimming. How many people has she killed compared to my one? That one, and the one that mattered most.

But I'm Alpha. Even the possibility of me losing is beyond any phonetic child's imagination.

Bravo sprints up to me, under the mask of a single blink. I set one foot forward in defence, raising both fists and tucking my elbows in, slitting my eyes and a smirk crawling up one half of my face. "Just like it used to be," I simper.

"I used to be happy!" She screams, throwing her fist at my face.

I catch her punch mid-air, crunching it between my fingers. "You honestly thought you were stronger than me, didn't you?"

She cries out, snatching her hand back, losing all balance and falling backwards into her ass. "Does Enva know this side of you?"

I pause before I can even begin to approach her. "She knows of it."

"Has she seen it?"

I bite my lip, clenching my eyes and seeing . "She won't have to. This'll all be over soon."

Bravo tackles me to the ground, cautious of her hand, keeping it somewhat out of my reach. She begins a series of swift strikes with her left, weaker, hand. With each blow everything gets more distant, and each hit feels sharper - like a new stab wound.

I finally catch one of her fists again, and fling her off, only sending her rolling to the side slightly. She jumps straight up, trying to roundhouse me before I'm even on my knees. I block the kick, gripping her leg tightly and tipping her backwards back onto the floor.

I bullet a fist at her, my knuckles shattering against the concrete as she slips aside. The Crazies didn't do a very good job on defence. Guess they thought I'd never need it - I never did either.

"You're slow, Alpha. Haven't you been keeping up with your Valens?" She mocks, kicking herself back into a stand.

"After Zulu, I have not killed again. Unlike you," I growl, my eyes swelling over and face feeling like it's fallen from its frame.

"Damn right. Four easy kills behind me. I'm surprised you're not so much weaker, to be honest - you haven't had Valens in, what, five hours? And with such a little amount like Zulu too."

"I must survive this. It is not a choice."

"I'm not going to give you one. This is for destroying my life!" She shrills, lunging at me.

And this is for Enva, I tell myself, taking up my defence again.

She dives straight at my throat, thrashing me to the floor by my neck and seizing her hands around it. My head malfunctions and I gasp for air. Through all the scratching and faded screaming, I pull out the semi-automatic from the back of my trousers and take it to her stomach.

My vision spirals into black, and my fingers begin to lose feeling on the gun under their control.

Bravo swears and screams, blaming me for everything that's happened, until I push the barrel against her stomach. Her eyes buldge, and I pull the trigger because I lose all consent completely.

Her grip goes loose, and her weight falls off me.

My sight sinks back in, my head spinning.

"Goodbye, Alpha." She moves her hand away from her stomach, the caught bullet wrapped tightly in her fist. She chucks it up and catches it between to fingers, positioning it like a dart, and briskly fires it with more power than any semi-automatic I'm aware exists.

Goodbye, Evna.

I'm sorry.