Number Four

Dying Stars

Bonnie was watching the stars die. Great flashes of light and colour danced across the atmosphere, a whole universe of thought creating and destroying itself above as the mindscape crumbled around them. Walls splintered, wooden beams warped and twisted, glass splintered to stardust and joined the churning cosmos.

Bonnie sat in the centre of the carnage, her back pressed against Henry's shoulder, leaning on him hard. Her whole body felt like lead, her arms limp and heavy at her sides, her head swaying like a ship at sea. She was so... very tired. It felt as if all her energy was steadily being drained away.

Henry had changed his face- Bonnie was not sure if it was meant to be as a comfort to her, or mockery or what- but no longer did he appear as that monstrous creature, but instead that blue eyed, blond young man dressed in white she had first come to know. Secretly, Bonnie was glad. She had changed also, although whether that was his doing or hers, she could not say. They had begun to blur. Her tentacle dress had melted away into a gown as black as ash; decayed fabric, torn and charred, clinging to her skin, all shredded lace and silk, dark tendrils painting her skin.

Henry leant his head back wearily against her shoulder. "Should we fight again?"

"Maybe later." That was all they had been doing- fighting and falling, fighting and falling for what seemed like an eternity, until everything that was left washed up here. "Not much point in it now." She narrowed her eyes, looking around. "Are we stuck inside your head?"

"Perhaps." Henry said. "Or yours. Or somewhere in between. Scattered to the four winds. Lost amongst the stars."

Bonnie gave a wry half-smile. It was not the worst way to go. Suitably dramatic.

"... Why, Bon?" He asked after a while. "We could have done it. They're not like us."

"Yes, we could have." Bonnie said. "And no, they are not. But you see... that's what I like about them. They don't see the world with the same eyes we do. There's so much potential in them- so much change and possibility. And even if they don't live up to that potential... I find that it's worth a chance." The words seemed to energise her somewhat, forcing back her heavy eyelids. All around, the world shifted and changed, as if a second layer was trying to come through.

"And I have my own investments in that." Bonnie leant back against him, a half-dazed, contented look on her face.

The broken walls of the Creel house faded back, new ones overlaying them; a wide building taking shape, with a softly-curved roof and a barn-like garage to the side.

"I'm sorry." Bonnie's voice was soft and drowsy. "This is me. It just keeps pushing through."

Green ivy crept over warm, earthy brickwork; shattered windows grew wide and crosshatched, and the stained glass door turned a brilliant red with a heavy bronze knocker in the middle. A large oak tree sported a lonely swing, and a white parameter fence pushed its way through the ground. Henry could have sworn for one moment he glimpsed a faceless figure in the upstairs window, eyelessly watching the gate for someone to come home.

"Bon..." Henry reached for her hand, long fingers brushing hers.

"You can...call me Lili, if you want." Bonnie gave a one shouldered shrug. "It's my name. Well... Lilith, but nobody calls me that." She grinned suddenly, letting out an exasperated laugh. "My mother... she was a right one. She was... That woman was something else." She giggled almost drunkenly, giddy with vitriol and pent up malice.

Sagging back against him, she sighed. "I'm so tired..."

He ran his fingers through her hair, soothing. "Then rest. I'll take care of you."

In the stillness and the silence, tucked up against him, at long last, Bonnie let her eyes slide closed.

A/N: The closest Bonnie has ever come to saying "I love you"= "You can call me Lili."

Also, wouldn't you all hate me if I said the fic ended there? XD *Runs off stage under a deluge of booing and rotten fruit* It doesn't! It doesn't! (It did in my original plan XD) There's still at least three more chapters! I just wanted to make sure nobody thought it was the end by how finale-like it reads.

Anyway, does anyone remember how at the beginning of this fic I said I would cast Eline Powell as Bonnie? Well, I might have another contender. Recently I've been watching Killing Eve, and couldn't help thinking- wouldn't Jodie Comer (with some black hair dye XD) make an excellent Bonnie?