Øverturning the lies (a twenty one pilots fanfiction)

~Mari~

She doesn't know how to begin to sort through these thoughts. 

She doesn't know what they mean, only that they exhuast her, and that she is worn-out, tired to her very core. 

And that she tried to belong, tried to hard. 

But...

It didn't solve these problems. 

So now she will take matters into her own hands. 

She must. 

She takes a deep breath, walking with purpose. 

Now, she feels strangely at peace. 

She knows-

She stops.

She tries to keep walking without meeting his eyes, knows that if she does-

She does. 

"Mari..." 

"W-what?" she asks, not bothering to mask the irritation in her voice, because deep down she hopes it will mean he leaves her alone. 

He doesn't.

"Come with me."

So she does, equal parts horrified and relieved.

But mostly just worried beyond anything. 

"Were you going to do something you'd regret later?" he asks. 

"I'm just...so tired," she says. "I don't-" 

"Stay here," he says. "Please. We need you."

"No you don't," she says. "You don't need me." 

"Yes," he says. "We do." 

She sighs. "Tyler-" 

"You're wondering if anyone really cares," he says. "Right? If anyone really loves you, for how can they love someone as broken as you?" 

She stares at him. 

Knows.

He isn't trying to be mean. 

He understands what she's feeling.

"Yeah," she mumbles. 

"Well," he says. "I love you. I promise. And the world would be worse off without you. It needs you to stay. Will you?" 

"Yes," she whispers. 

"I'm not saying that it will be easy," Tyler says. "Because it won't be. Not always. But-it's worth it." 

"How do you know?" Mari asks. 

"Because once you're gone, you're gone. But...you can still have a chance of being happy if you stay. You can still try to make things right," he says. 

"But I can't make things right," she says. "Not after everything I've done." 

"I know it feels like that," Tyler says. "Believe me. I do. But...I don't think you're a bad person because of that. I think it means you're human." 

"What if I'm an alien?" Mari asks, her mood suddenly lighter than it's been in a while. 

"Then the rest of us better watch out," Tyler says. "Excluding Josh, of course."

"But-really," Mari says. "I've made a lot of mistakes...I've made the same mistake over and over again..." 

"Me too," Tyler says. "Me too...but you know what?"

"What?" Mari asks. 

"The second you start to believe that, that's when you let the darkness win And no matter what happens, you can't let the darkness win," Tyler says. 

"It wants to," Mari says quietly. 

"I know," Tyler says. "But...look. After everything, you're still here. You're still alive. It would be a terrible thing if you suddenly decided it was too hard, that you were going to give up, after everything...you know?"

"Thank you," Mari says, wiping her eyes. 

"No," Tyler says. "Thank you. Thank you for still fighting." 

"Even when it's hard," Mari says.

Tyler nods. "Even when it's hard."