AN: Hey! Happy TPOH 7th anniversary! There will be 2 chapters after this; two different endings. I hope you've enjoyed Shattered thus far!

The duo had risen early the next morning, eager to push on through the dead forest before any other unsavory beings became aware of them. Hero was loathe to leave the pretty glen behind though, and went around patting the trees on the trunks, thanking each one quietly for providing them a safe place to sleep.

RGB was still sitting in the grass below one of the trees, head sagging like a cinderblock, legs splayed in positions that looked uncomfortable but that he was too tired to change. He didn't want to hurry Hero, but he could feel himself running out of time.

He coughed a little, a feeble sound, and Hero came back over.

"Sorry RGB, I got distracted. Ready to go?"

He nodded, not feeling up to speaking as he pressed his back against the tree trunk and inched his way to his feet. He'd woken feeling like he hadn't slept at all, and wanted nothing more than to find some place actually comfortable to rest.

But he knew if he did that, he might never rise again.

But now he was on his feet again, holding the cane, putting one foot in front of the other and listening to the little pitter-patter of Hero's footsteps in front of him. He focused on that, trying not to think too much about his plan to speak to Magnus. He didn't want to chicken out now.

(Or think about how it was growing less and less likely he'd ever see the prism-head again. Or see again in general.)

And so he allowed himself to be led forward like a shambling zombie, breathing losing its rhythm slowly, slowly. His antennas no longer moved on their own, just hung over his screen like the boneless ears of a plush rabbit.

What RGB didn't know was that Hero had noticed. Hero could see him, and could hear him. She didn't say it, but she was careful to lead him around things his fumbling feet could catch on, steering the television monster around trees and down the clearest of paths.

Of course, that became harder when the hard ground began to turn to sand. The trees were also thinning even further.

But that was good. That meant they were almost to the sea. It also, however, meant RGB's shoes nearly shot out from under him when he first encountered a patch of sand on the stony ground. He turned a little, breathing heavily, head tilted in a quizzical way. She could tell he was asking what had just happened.

"Sand. We're almost to the sea, RGB," she said with a little smile, patting his hand. She made sure to keep the contact brief, both because of RGB's dislike of it and also because her hands were shaking.

He looked so bad. She genuinely was afraid his head would fall off.

"Just be careful to not slip! We'll go a little slower now." For all her fear, she did a good job of keeping the fact that she was afraid from showing in her voice at the moment. Brushing a blue tipped lock of hair from over her eye, tucking it into the boater hat, she gently moved forwards.

"Okay, step here… And here…"

Whenever they came to a sand dune that was too steep to walk down easily, they took it step by step, Hero stomping little footholds for RGB into the loose grains. She helped him put his feet in them until they got to the trough between dunes and continued on.

Hero was glad she had something else to focus on because, aside from her worry for RGB, she was also rapidly recalling how dark the space beneath the sea was. Yes, she had learned to listen, but both on the way to and from the market the fear had gotten to her at one point or another.

That couldn't happen during this trip.

But, all too soon, the television monster and the tiny hero found themselves looking into the abyss leading under the sea. Part of the portion they had come out of had collapsed right after they'd left due to some of the trees around the entrance dying off, but there was still a smaller opening leading inside. The dream crystals clustered there had grown larger, and were holding the sea up in place of the patch of missing trees.

Now the 'doorway,' so to speak, was about twice the height of a person. Hero looked up at it, peering inside to see the crystals glittering in the low light.

She could do this.

'C'mon, RGB, we're at the sea!"

"I g-gzzzeussed so," he said in soft, buzzing tone, speaking for the first time that day. He breathed in a deep albeit shuddering breath, straightening a little. "I'm rzzzzeady."

He thought, maybe, he caught a whisper of a voice coming from the cool void he knew he was standing before, curling up inside the hollow of his head and twining around his wires. But he must have been imagining it so he ignored it.

Hero began leading him into the dark, having to mentally ready herself for the task ahead. At least right now she could distract herself with maneuvering RGB around the crystals.

"You did it!" she exclaimed when the passage opened up into the cathedral-like space, making sure the tellyhead had his feet firmly planted. "I knew you could!"

RGB remembered telling her the same thing when she had finally put two and two together, at the other end of this very same passage. He remembered scooping her up, spinning in a circle and laughing. She had laughed too. He wished they would laugh together again soon, as cheesy as that sounded.

Stars above, nearly dying has turned me into a sap, he thought, trying to feel vehement though there was no bite behind it. Although there is plenty of time left for you to kick the bucket.

He tried to banish the thought, even as his broken head ached and his antennas were numb and his body was bruised. Again, he thought he caught voices in the darkness that had engulfed him a few days prior, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

"Hzzzzero…" he asked, hesitantly, giving the cane a small tug. Am I going mad? is what he wanted to ask, but didn't dare. "D-d-do y-you hzzzzzear anythingggg?"

He heard her footsteps stop and could imagine her cupping a hand behind her ear. "... Nope! Beside seeing in the dark. I can hear that!"

She sounded almost relieved at that, and RGB couldn't blame her.

"It's okay… I promise we'll be there soon… You'll be okay…" A small hand patted his glove, then retreated.

RGB nodded a little, head lolling. He shifted a foot forward, hardly lifting off the hard ground, shuffling forwards. The constant shuff shuff of his soles did keep some of the whispers he now was SURE he could hear away, but all too soon he grew accustomed to the sound.

And then, only then, did the whispers come to him fully.

Well, they… They weren't even whispers, exactly. He more could hear them in his mind, hearing a sound and converting it to speech in his brain. And what those whispers said… They were his past heros, past loves, even people he possibly knew in his past life.

The things they said… The ghosts of his past did not simply wail, they howled and raged and guilted. Oh, he deserved it alright. Well, some of it at least. But they coalesced into a chorus that was steadily building, a headache that grew and grew until...

"Let me die!" he shrieked, with more clarity to his words than there had been since this mess had started. No buzzes or static pops. "Hurtszzz… Hurts so d-damn much, please PLEASE." He was clinging to her, much as he had when he'd first gotten hurt and had sobbed onto her shoulder.

Now his voice was ragged with sobs as well as glitches, Hero supporting nearly his full weight as she wrapped her arms around him. His broken antennas brushed her face and he wailed even more at the contact. They had been numb until they touched her.

He'd tried. He'd succeeded, for most of this trip to be strong for Hero, to not scare her and to keep her mostly in the dark about how he was doing.

But now, here, in the dark, he had come undone.

Dying was frightening to him because he knew with all the enemies he'd made it would be a terrible experience. It would hurt, and it was, in the deepest parts of him, pain he feared the most. But now life was so excruciating that he could not take another step, and he just wanted to slip away instead. Maybe the actual dying bit wouldn't be as bad, would be a relief…

"RGB." Hearing his name grounded him, just a little, enough to listen to what was going to be said next.

"RGB we're almost there," continued Hero, because of course it was Hero, the whispers weren't real. "I can see the light."

Ah, that damnable light at the end of the tunnel. Of course it was that metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. The bloody irony.

"I czzzzzAN'T," he muttered with conviction, pushing a knee under himself so he could support his own body.

"You CAN," Hero insisted, and he felt too tired to argue the point. He'd just have to push himself to continue. Just as he always had. (Though admittedly, he'd never been as bad off as this.)

Getting to his feet was, he thought in the moment, one of the hardest physical tasks he had ever done. This was the man (er, monster) who had launched himself and his charge across the market via an explosion, been punched by a grief, been attacked by a furious bundle of knives and candy, and had spent a great deal of time running. All in the past handful of days. And still standing up after this ordeal was the hardest. Even the dread hadn't compared, in a way.

But he stood anyways, reaching a shaking, half limp hand to brush off his shoulder and just maybe shoo the whispers away. That didn't work, but at least the gesture reminded him a bit of himself.

They began to walk again, except now all of RGB was shaking, little tremors like he was cold. It wasn't cool enough for him to actual feel cold, and to Hero, he had been quite warm.

She was scared, terrified even, between the dark and RGB's breakdown and the fact that he seemed to, finally, be actively dying. All of these things were varying degrees of horrible on their own, but together… Her own panicked heartbeat was drowning out some of the audible cues from the world around her. She could see enough of the deep blue glow of the ocean and hear its rushing call to not bump into the walls, but she zigged and zagged erratically.

She didn't really have it in mind but deep down somewhere she figured that RGB was too delirious to notice her anxious paths. She at least hoped he was because...

She had lied about the light up ahead.

But actually, over time, she became more and more aware that there really WAS a light up ahead. It was getting closer, or they were getting closer. Hero had to shield her eyes when they finally did reach the Market, sounds finally growing into the babble of the sellers and their customers.

She had to find the Guardians and see if they would allow RGB to get fixed here… But she was interrupted by RGB speaking again.

"Ah," he stated weakly. "Th-the Mzzzarket."

And with that, he passed out where he stood.