She breathed in through her mouth, out through her nose, then the other way, anything to try and abate the nausea she felt when she looked at the green door. Of course, none of it worked, but that didn't stop the reflexive attempts anyway. Ruia shuddered, knowing that she was never going to be able to go back to where, how, who she had been before. This was it then, she supposed. Nothing left to do or say. Nowhere left to go.

The memories were almost unwelcome at this point, a bitter reminder of what she was going to lose. It was almost with relief that she let go, let the virus finally take what was owed to it.

------

As she felt herself tear free, the echoes of thoughts from being within the virus whispered at the back of her mind, unintelligible for the most part. She wished she could plunge herself back into it, into that oblivion, when she realised she was still no longer herself physically. Her cognizance held on by a thread and even that felt like it was slipping.

The vines wrapping around her were as much comfort as they were utilitarian. By giving her a form, it helped ground her, helped her feel more real even though she knew it was only delaying the inevitable.

She staggered forward, taking longer than she would have liked to get used to using them to move herself around. Then, she saw the form in the green and cared not at all for how graceless her movements were. A face! Her face? Her face?

Not her face. Someone else's face. She knew them, though, she realized. ...They had come to save her. He, she realised, as the vines obeyed her urging to move aside. She pulled him off of the ground, carefully pulled him toward the exit to where he would be safe from this. She gasped and shook the more she traveled away from the center of the vines. Was this what she was now? Well, she could do this, then, this much more before the end of it.

By the time she got him to the exit, she had almost forgotten why it was she was there, who this was she was carrying. But there was a kernel of herself still tucked away in the center of what was left of her consciousness, and she held onto it with sheer tenacity. When she saw them, she knew he'd be safe. As they carried him away, she turned back without a second glance.

She curled herself into the center of everything, wrapping what was left of herself close to her being. For as long as she had it, she would cherish it. Even if, eventually, she would have to let go for good.