Taking Route East, Not Calling "Home" • Twenty One Pilots

TRENCH: 1.7: chapter seventeen

a/n: I hope you guys are enjoying the story, it's very close to the end. This isn't the end, but soon it will be.

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Tyler started walking, nothing but the clothes on his back with him. He was walking away from the camp, towards the red hooded figure in the cavern. A white haired hoarse beside him, sitting atop it, unable to get off as he insisted when he left that he had to be alone but now knew the consequences of such proclamation. Tyler looked up to him, the white in his eyes glowing through the veil. Tyler felt pressure around his neck, even more around his hands. he scrunched them open and closed, digging his hands into his palms as he did so. Unable to look away from the somewhat deadly figure in front of him.

"Help me down?" Nico asked. Tyler sighed, nodding. He reached up, helping the bishop off the horse, ready to fight the inevitable boss battle. He wanted his hands broke after touching his flesh, unable to create would be the fault. He would have lost.

Tyler couldn't lose, not anymore.

"You forgot this." Nico said, taking the final flower Tyler left at his apartment out of his hood, handing to Tyler, whose hands were throbbing and shivering. Burning, in the way he felt it. He took the flower.

"Is this you? Trying to save the cycle? To dirty my soul again?" Tyler asked aggressively. The angsty skeleton inside him ready to come out. His belief of skin and bones being him far behind him crawled back slowly, but his skeleton wasn't Nico's. Nico's would lay in a chamber, unable to breathe for as long as Tyler wished it to.

"If I don't, I die don't I?" Nico asked. Tyler shook his head.

"No, not really. You make me go to my lowest point." Tyler said.

"Well, this is the deepest part of the valley." Nico said, looking around. Tyler knew he was a goner, but the mines of Dema were lower.

"The mines of Nico make me go lower. I was a goner, for so long. All because of you." Tyler scolded. Nico only chuckled.

"Because of you, be-" "Because you're my mind I get it! But you're not me! My face isn't blurry! Not anymore!" Tyler yelled, looking up in pain. Nico held out a hand, and for some un-forsaken reason he took it. Neither moved, just there, A symbol of trying to let go of the past, and to understand how to get better when they almost fall backwards because of said self.

"But it is." Nico pleaded almost.

"No. It isn't." Tyler corrected. Nico looked around, chuckling, reaching for Tyler's other hand, the right one. But Tyler didn't budge.

"You won't take both of them. Not anymore." He said. Nico sighed, unable to accept his unconsciousness. Like death, only he was alive. Bittersweet.

"You know, technically Trench is part of the city. You could walk back in any moment. Walk out just the same," Nico observed. "That's why beyond is forever leaving." 

"I know. It's torchere. Something you enjoy." Tyler said. 

"Really, Nills is too weak to rule. Scarver would enjoy it the most. Keons would have comforted Nills. Keons' death is the reason why you're out here." Nico said. Tyler looked at him as if he were insane.

"But Keons isn't like you. None of them are." Tyler said. Nico only laughed.

"That's where you're wrong. Keons isn't dead. He will be like me if you decide to stay out here." Nico said as if it were obvious. The ninety percent of the truth that Tyler knew would always be useless compared to the ten percent he didn't know.

"Keons lost someone in his tower. Someone who would take over after he left.  He lost Asbor. Asbor would've been a bishop, but she was never found. She had left, skipped Trench and went straight to beyond. Keons collapsed. The only difference is that you aren't Asbor. Asbor's real name was Audrey. Your real name is Tyler, as you know. If you came back, You'd be named Lyloc. I know how much you hate my name" Nico explained in depth.

Tyler grabbed at the locks of his hair, taking it all in. He let go of Nico's hand, his burning hand becoming ash, almost falling to the ground in his mind. He turned around, staying put. To lean back Nico would catch him, fulfilling his destiny in the city. But to stay in Trench would be to save those in the city, become the new Asbor, one that wouldn't be able to jump to beyond like Audrey but to go ahead and stay in Trench, go in time. Beyond wasn't death after all, just a journey that Trench prepared them for subconsciously.

Nico reached his hands to the back of Tyler's neck, reaching out and painting the tips of his fingers to the skin. The paints rubbing off like it did on Tyler's right hand. Tyler gulped, looking to the star-lit sky. He was ready to run, run for his life. He looked to the camp, whispering two words to himself.

Sahlo Folina.

Tyler hummed a tune, a somber one at that. One where he had to scream, one where he had to scream for the skeletons. He was a goner, he knew this but why did he have to accept it again? Why was it hurting him ever so much more?

He needed to hold onto someone, a group of people even. Air. Anything. Anything that could let him save himself. He didn't want to be gone. Not anymore. He needed to save himself. Nico turned him around, handing Tyler the flower, smiling as if he had won the war.

"The choice is yours." He stated, a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. 

Tyler looked down at the wilting flower in his hand. He looked down, evaluating the situation, pushing all questions to the back of his head. The neck he had suffocated by the paint, the hands holding the flower burning off by the simple paint on them. He looked up to Blurryface. He wasn't a goner, not anymore. He wouldn't be let gone. He was leaving the city, as he did already leave for his life, why would he go back.

Tyler turned around, taking one last breath of water and running.

He ran and ran, like coming up for air from being drowned. Like a lung reattached itself to him. He ran and ran and ran. The flower in his hand, not letting go. Blurryface was behind him, dropped onto the grass beside a horse that started galloping back to the city on command when its master would drop. Nico was unconscious, his eyes closed and mouth smiling. As if he almost wanted this to happen. The man who nearly killed Tyler, gone. Tyler, now free for himself.

Tyler returned to the camp. Banditos all staring at him, angry, scared, Jenna ran up to him. Hugging him, He wrapped his arms around her, starting to cry into her shoulder. The flower visible to all around him. Josh came up from behind, waiting patiently for Tyler to let go of Jenna. He did, looking to his friend apologetically.

"I'm sorry." Tyler mouthed, Josh couldn't take his eyes off the flower in his hand.

"Is he?" Josh asked. Tyler smiled, tears in his eyes. Josh ran to Tyler, hugging him.

"He's done." Josh stated, finality falling into place. Tyler chuckled.

"Now he's the goner." Tyler said. Josh only chuckled, Jenna took Tyler's free hand. Smiling, leading him back to their tent to shave his head, a new beginning.

The sun started to rise as Jenna and Tyler and sat in front of their tent. Jenna, getting ready to buzz Tyler's outgrown hair. Tyler watched the new beginning to another day surface, Banditos would be starting to light bonfires for the days' needs. He fiddled with the flower in his hand, putting it into his pocket with the red in it. Looking up comfortably into the view ahead of him, content with safety. A new journey would start now, but it would all be worth wile. He was walking now, he was okay. 

The broken boy smiled at the view, and what a view it was.

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the end