Ellie, Merlin, and Robert

     They followed Gabriel's direction, through the open doors, and found him in a server room. The lunatic seemed to be huddling over something.

     "Gabriel!" Ellie cried.

     He turned, cackling, "This is it! The climax! It's all been foreseen!"

     "Shut up," Merlin ordered. "Stop this madness! Whatever the hell you're doing, it can't be for the benefit of mankind."

     "But it is," whispered Gabriel.

     He turned and picked up what he had been building. It was a small machine of some sort, and Merlin immediately recognized it as a bomb.

     "He's going to blow a hole in this building..." he whispered.

     Ellie stepped forward, "Gabriel....please...."

     Gabriel activated the bomb, and the mess of wires began to blink with lights. There was only seconds left before obliteration.

     "Merlin!" Robert cut in.

     Merlin turned.

     "Get my cuffs off, I can stop him!" Robert insisted.

     "I can't..." Merlin whispered.

     Ellie stepped forward, with an idea, "I think I can."

     She placed her hands on the cuffs and ordered them to open. The familiar sense of power coursed through her system and the machine snapped open.

     "Thank you," Robert thanked, rubbing his wrists.

     "Robert, you can't!" Merlin pleaded.

     "We all have our destinies in this world," Robert answered. "I'm fulfilling mine."

     "No!" Merlin protested.

     But Robert was gone in a blur. His body, moving at supersonic speeds, began to circle the cackling Gabriel and the device he was holding. Robert moved faster, nothing but a blur that seemed to grow brighter every second. Through the mass of color and light, Gabriel looked at Ellie. Through the insanity, the pain, and the suffering, Ellie saw the Gabriel she had once known one last time. It was then that she realized he wasn't the villain, he was just doing what he knew he had to do.

     "Gabriel..." she whispered.

     Her feelings for him were still there, she could feel it. Ellie's love did not waver as the whirlwind intensified. Gabriel smiled, knowingly, and then there was an explosion that enveloped everything in a blinding light. Just as the bomb exploded, there was a huge flash and Gabriel, along with Robert, vanished into nothingness.

**

     But they had been too late. Some of the force of the blast had escaped Robert's wall of speed, and the remnants of the explosion took with it an entire section of the structure. A gaping hole was torn into the facility.

     Merlin sheltered himself and Ellie from the blast with his telekinetic abilities. When the calamity finally subsided, Ellie saw a hole that led to the outside.

     But so did the prisoners.

     Thousands of them sprinted out of the collapsing facility and into the unknown. Freed convicts, the wrongly convicted, and the just-plain-scared darted into the surrounding forest. Merlin and Ellie could only watch in astonishment.

     "Robert..." Merlin whispered. "Robert...no..."

     "Holy..." Ellie coughed, in utter astonishment. "No!"

     She pushed herself to her feet, disbelieving what she'd just seen. Gabriel was gone, and there was nothing left.

     "He won," Merlin whispered. "Gabriel Monroe won."

     "Gabriel..." Ellie whispered.

     Merlin stood up, a note of urgency in his voice, "Ellie! We've got to go now!"

     Ellie turned around.

     "Before reinforcements arrive," Merlin whispered, pulling Ellie away from the wreckage.

     "What happened to Robert?" asked Ellie, still stunned. "Where's Gabriel? Where did they go?"

     "He's a speedster," Merlin answered. "He must've thought that if he could run fast enough....he could somehow contain the blast."

     "So where did they go?" questioned Ellie, again.

     Merlin shrugged, his eyes wide, "I...don't know."

     The two  sprinted out of the ruins of the facility. They stopped  a moment, before entering the forest, both not knowing what to feel. There was no time to mourn, they had to leave before the authorities swooped in. Ellie tried not to think of Gabriel, or if he was dead or not. All that mattered was her escape; the race from C.I.N.A. continued. Ellie paused for a moment, nevertheless thinking about Gabriel's fate, and turned to Merlin.

   "What do we do now?" Ellie asked. "Where do we go?"

    "We hide," Merlin responded. "You don't know this organization like I do Ellie. They stop at nothing until they've achieved their goal."

     "But...we can't just leave..." Ellie whispered.   

     The sound of helicopters echoed over the treetops, not too far off.

     "I know..." Merlin admitted. "I don't want to leave either. Not without Robert...but he would want us to save ourselves."

     Ellie was silent, looking from Merlin to the trees.

     "I'll stay in contact," Merlin promised. "Gabriel...this facility...something's happening. I don't know what, but something's coming."

     "I'll keep in touch too," Ellie finally replied, uncertainly turning toward the wilderness; she knew it was time to go.

     Merlin nodded, "Until the next time."

     Ellie began to turn towards the wilderness, but Merlin put a hand on her shoulder.

     "But always remember," Merlin said softly, "that humanity," he pointed to her heart, "comes from the inside. No matter what happens, promise me you'll never lose your humanity." 

     She looked him in the eyes, nodding, "I promise Merlin."

     They parted ways, and Ellie dashed into the surrounding forest. She couldn't stop thinking about what Gabriel had said. Her emotions were numb; she didn't know what to think.

     The Hooded One.

     The Renegade.

     Who were they? What role did they all have in the fate of the world?

     Ellie darted into the unknown, not knowing where the future would take her.

**

     High up in the hills, watching the C.I.N.A. facility smolder, stood a man dressed in a black suit. The man's black fedora caught a little bit of dust resonating from the facility, and he casually dusted it off. He watched the people run away like ants, and the last two linger before parting into the wilderness. For a couple more seconds he stood there, and then he stepped into the darkness.

     It was time.