You're My Chase

Epilogue

Sam 3rd Person POV:

Watching Tommy tuck Purpled under his chin as they walked out of the hunting room made a warmth spread through his stomach. The time had run out, so most of the other hunters and runners had finished re-hunting their partners except for them plus a few others. Based on Purpled's flushed cheeks and bright eyes, he was proud of himself for outrunning Tommy yet again, but the other blonde didn't seem to mind it.

With a sigh, Sam spun around, making sure to keep his footfalls soft so he wouldn't attract any unwanted attention as he slunk from the room. He remembered doing that, years ago, once. He had been a hunter, found a willing runner, and changed his whole life.

Guilt pooled in his stomach as he thought about him. He had been foolish. Seeking the truth, just as Dream had, and it had killed him in the end.

Carefully, he eased into his office and began shuffling papers around, his mind half distracted. Seeing how Tommy and Purpled were getting along, everything was slowly turning back to normal, new or not. Months after Sam had arrested all of them at the waterfall, today was the first time he had seen Purpled smile after a hunt.

A knock at the door made him flinch and he cleared his throat hastily as he got up to admit them in. "Punz!" he greeted in surprise, shutting the door behind him. "What are you doing here?"

The blue-eyed man gave him a ghost of a smile. His eyes were cloudy with the distant fog of memory. Sam couldn't blame him. The last time they had seen each other was when they were still under the influence of the egg. "How's Dream?"

His lips tightened and he sank heavily down into his chair. "I told him they were destroyed. But I didn't give any names. At first he raved in his cell, but now he's calming down. I can't say he feels sorry for attacking Purpled, but he'll be staying there for a long time."

Punz bristled, crossing his arms. "Well he better. If I ever see him again . . ." His fists opened and closed ominously, daring for the other to try.

Sam echoed his anger with a curt nod. "I will make sure that won't happen."

"What about the Egg, though?" Punz blurted out, gripping the back of a chair. "I still don't understand all that happened and I've told as much as I could to Purpled who pesters me all about it."

Sam glanced over his paperwork to take a minute to breathe and to think about how to answer. "I've been fighting it. We all have been, except for Bad, Skeppy, maybe Antfrost. Inside of us, we know what we are doing is wrong, but we didn't know how to conquer it."

"And now the Egg is just happy that the two bases are destroyed, no questions asked?"

"Of course." He placed a few papers into their respective piles, sure that he wasn't ever going to read them just once for another year. His mind still buzzed with the 'what ifs' that plagued his mind. "After all, the Egg made that mess. It knew that if people found out about it, everybody would freak. It's not as simple as Dream thought. We have been hunters and runners for so long that it's become part of us now, whether we want it or not."

Punz muttered something before staring directly at him. "And you? What are you? I never see you in the hunts, and when I look in the records, everything is really vague."

He stiffened, momentarily forgetting his training. "Why?" he asked, rolling his shoulders as if that had been his point. "I'm a hunter, of course."

"You sign yourself up, all right," Punz said. "But you never go."

Placing the papers down, Sam looked into Punz's eyes while the other watched him right back. Then, his shoulders slumped. "I guess it might be time I told somebody why I became a police officer."

Ignoring the small frown on the other's face, he reclined back into his chair and sighed, staring at the wall behind the man as he thought back in his lifetime, calling up the painful memories. "I used to be a hunter. This was before the Egg found me, before I was twenty. Before I became who I am now. Did you know that age affects the time you have left after a mark to turn back into a human? I only realized it after, when the normally allotted time left should have run out before we made it."

Clearing his throat, he risked a glance at Punz who watched him with wide eyes. He already knew, Sam realized. Knew part of it already, and the echoing guilt and sadness echoed in his eyes.

"I found a guy and we became friends. I was young, but very eager to look into the history of Rosesquare, especially why there was a forbidden zone. Being reckless, he and I both went together and went past the waterfall. We didn't realize there was another room behind, but after we found it there was no turning back." His voice caught but he swallowed and went on. "After I marked him, we knew we had to try the lab out. We felt like we knew enough. So, we ran back to the place. And like the building knew we were freshly marked together, a new door opened up inside of the room, one that wasn't there before. I don't know how it knew. But, elated, we went in when it happened."

Squeezing his eyes shut, he could envision it all over again, even twenty years later. The screams. The pain that racked his body. The pain was both physical as his body morphed, changing from what it had been, and emotional as he felt the fresh link between him and his runner break apart.

"I lost him that day. The funeral couldn't tell he no longer had his runner traits, nor that I lost my own hunter traits. After that I locked the door and vowed that nobody else would go back there to get hurt ever again. I didn't want them to become like me; useless, different, and broken."

The silence hung in the air for a moment as they both got lost in the memories of their thoughts. "But you're not useless," Punz said gently, tilting his head softly to the side. "You helped us. In the end you stopped Dream."

"I was doing the bidding of the Egg," he snorted, shuffling in his seat. "After I turned back into a human, I awoke it, and couldn't stop its force from spreading onto me. It made me become a police officer and it never left me alone so I could think of him. It was both a blessing and a curse. And, now that you destroyed both of the labs, it can finally go back to sleep, after keeping the world together once again."

Punz nodded. "Yes. The Egg knew what it had to do. Maybe it already knew other people would try to get into the labs and kept you and me, and the others to keep the world together."

"The Egg isn't good," Sam snorted in disgust.

His face closed off. "I know. But it knew, and it used us to achieve peace."

Sam sighed, running a tired hand through his face. "I know. After twenty years, I know." Breathing out, he stared at the papers. "The Egg still didn't help me be brave enough to face it again, though. When Tommy came running with this wild story, begging me to help, the Egg told me exactly what was going on. And I shook him off because I was afraid to deal with any of it."

Punz shrugged and made for the door. "Well, you did get over it. Without you, it would have been harder to capture Dream. So, for that, thank you."

The air blew listlessly from the door swinging open and shut, ruffling the pages which he smoothed out.

"I'm sorry I didn't act sooner, Ponk," he breathed out into the empty room, clenching a hand. "But now we can finally have peace."

And when he didn't hear the Egg's assurances in his mind or feel its tentacle reach over his heart to ease the pain at saying the name, his lips curled into a slight smile. Yes, the world was saved and the Egg was fast asleep till the next time.