Chapter Text
Dimitri opens his eyes.
“—each has collapsed! The breach has collapsed! He did it, he did it, the breach has collapsed!”
There’s wild cheering in his ears, what sounds like a hundred people screaming and whooping as he slowly comes back to himself. He feels like he’s been beaten within an inch of his life, every muscle in his body sore, and at first his eye doesn’t even want to fully open as he tries to make sense of what he’s looking at. Blue. Blue sky.
“To the choppers,” comes a calm, authoritative voice, cutting above the sounds of everyone else celebrating. The Professor. Byleth. “I want those pods recovered ASAP. Hilda, have they reached the surface yet?”
“Yes, I’ve got satellite visuals on Dimitri’s pod,” Hilda reports. “Tracking the exact location now. Vitals are solid.”
The top hatch to Dimitri’s escape pod jettisons off, exposing him to cold but welcomingly fresh air. He sits up slowly, his head pounding. The ocean is thankfully calm today, hardly any waves at all, and his pod bobs peacefully on the surface as it begins to emit green locator fluid that will help the search and rescue teams spot him against all the deep blue.
They need you more than they need me, Felix had said. I love you.
Felix.
“Felix,” he rasps, sitting up and tearing his helmet off.
“Dimitri!” Sylvain says with obvious relief. “You’re awake! Welcome back, bud—”
“Where’s Felix?” he demands, his throat torn raw.
“Where’s the second pod?” Byleth asks calmly.
“I’m tracking it, but I’m getting no vital signs,” Hilda answers, her voice subdued.
Shakily, Dimitri climbs to his feet. He turns slowly on the spot, looking in all directions. If the second pod is coming up, it should appear any moment now. Any moment now. His breathing is coming out harsh, panicked.
“Dimitri,” Mercedes begins gently, her voice full of sorrow.
There’s a huge splash behind him, and Dimitri whirls around. The second escape pod pops up out of the water, bobbing to the surface. Without hesitating, Dimitri dives forward, the icy water hitting him like a wall, and kicks his way over to the raft. It’s only several yards away from his own, but it feels like a mile in the cold water and the way his heart feels like it's caught in his throat.
“Dimitri, be careful!” Ingrid cries.
Dimitri grabs onto the edge of Felix’s escape pod, hauling himself up on top of it. Shaking from the cold, it takes him two tries for his fingers to hook into the latches to release the top hatch, sending it skittering out across the water.
Inside the pod is Felix, lying motionless and limp.
Dimitri rips off Felix’s helmet, tossing it aside. He presses his finger against the side of Felix’s throat, willing himself to stop trembling, and willing Felix’s heart to be beating.
There’s nothing.
“I can’t,” he says, his voice catching and threatening to crack, “I can’t find his pulse.”
“Dimitri—” Annette begins, her voice tearful.
“I don’t think he’s breathing,” Dimitri says helplessly, and takes a shuddering breath. His hands brush across Felix’s face aimlessly. “Felix? Felix?”
“Dimitri,” Byleth says, low and intent, “Listen to me. It could be that his sensors aren’t working. We can’t be sure until—”
Dimitri pulls Felix’s limp form up into his arms, hugging him tightly to his chest. He buries his face in Felix’s hair, willing himself not to cry even as he feels the tears, hot and salty, welling up. “No. No. Felix, please. Don’t go. Don’t go.”
“Dimitri,” Byleth says gently.
“Please don’t go,” Dimitri whispers, “Please. Please.”
“You’re squeezing me too tight,” a muffled voice says, right against his chest.
Immediately Dimitri lifts his head, pulling back and hardly daring to hope. Felix coughs weakly, eyes fluttering open, and somehow managing a faintly sardonic look.
“I couldn’t breathe,” he says accusingly, his voice hoarse, but the corners of his lips are twitching.
He’s alive. He’s alive.
“Felix,” Dimitri says, the name like a prayer, and then they’re both laughing, so relieved it’s all they can do, shifting forward so Dimitri can wrap his arms around Felix more comfortably and Felix can rest against him, his own arms wrapped around Dimitri too, holding each other close. On the comm line, a wild cheer goes up as everyone screams Felix’s name, celebrating all over again, joyous and exuberant.
Dimitri can only hold onto Felix, reveling in the feeling of Felix’s heart beating strong and steady against his own. They made it. They’re both here. They’re both alive.
They’ve won.
“This is Professor Byleth Eisner, Director of the Shatterdome,” Byleth announces over the comms, calm and unflappable as always. “The breach is sealed. The apocalypse is henceforth canceled.”
The cheer that goes up after that announcement, broadcasted through LOCCENT and the rest of the Shatterdome, is so loud Dimitri’s comm link nearly shorts out with a burst of static. It’s really, truly, finally over. It’s like the dawn of a new day, a new age.
“Dimitri, Felix, just stay where you are,” Byleth adds a moment later, the sounds of celebration still carrying on behind them, “we have choppers en route to pick you up.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Dimitri says. He pulls back from Felix again, just far enough to take him in. Absently, he reaches up to mute his comm, even though everyone else is surely too busy celebrating to eavesdrop. “Thank you, Felix.”
“For what?” Felix asks, lifting an eyebrow. He looks just about as exhausted as Dimitri feels, but his golden eyes burn so bright.
“For coming back,” Dimitri says simply as the drone of helicopters draws near. The future is bright, now that the threat of the Kaijus is gone forever, but it wouldn’t be nearly as incandescent if Felix weren’t here with him.
“Well,” Felix replies casually, but there’s a faint flush rising on his cheeks despite the cold, “I did promise that I would.”
Dimitri laughs softly, leaning forward to press his forehead against Felix’s, the two of them resting against each other, close and intimate. The future is already unfolding before them, bright with endless possibilities. “Yes. You promised to be at my side.”
“Yeah,” Felix says, slowly taking Dimitri’s hand and twining their fingers together like an unbreakable vow, “and that’s where I’ll always be.”