There was a green door in front of her. Only one this time, no more choices to be made, and the realization kept her rooted in place. She didn't want to open it. She didn't even want to look at it. Trembling, she wondered if she could go back to the other dreams and forget again, for just a while, what all this really meant. More than anything she wanted to not know that this was the end of it all, that there would never be any waking to look forward to.

But Renita had not been made to live on fantasies. Steeling herself, and reminding herself that she had known this day was coming, she stepped forward and reached for the doorknob. One last time, her mind flashed through it all, her life as knew it from start to finish. There were so many memories that she hadn't ever appreciated until now, and she savored them all, the good and the bad. Silently she said her goodbyes and spared one last regret on the fact that they would never reach the ears they were intended for.

Renita opened the door and let the virus take her.

And then she was the virus. Not a singular mind any longer, never alone with herself again, but a collective. A legacy. Everyone and everything the virus had taken was here, altogether, all one. They could feel the whole network, all that knowledge and intent. They had been something smaller and lesser once, but now they were a gift, an infection to be given and collected.

No. That wasn't right.

There was nothing to concern them but the harvest. Feeding. Gathering. They were a legacy that needed fueling, the world was their vessel.

That's not what I am. I can't be, not-

Nothing could contain them. Their memories were still incomplete and-

No.

There was a strange tearing sensation, a vague sense of loss, and then she was free. For a moment, she could feel herself beginning to wake, but it was only a feeling. She was still formless, drifting without an anchor. Frantically she began to search for herself, hoping against all hope that this wasn't the end. That she could still live again as she once had. The vines along the long corridor she'd found herself in were quick to obey around her. Some coiled around, gave her a shape that was as human as they could manage.

Getting them to work together was not so easy, but when she concentrated she could make her new form move, lumbering forward as she searched. And then there was a face. She paused, hope rising, but no, for all its familiarity it wasn't hers. This was...She sifted through memory, and at last came upon the answer. This was the one who had saved her. Gently she reached out to coax away the vines that held him.

Human or not, he had risked his life for her. She would return the favor.

It was a strange feeling as she descended the stairway with her rescuer in her arms. Bit by bit she was losing herself as she strayed away from Creation, but she would do this regardless. She owed him this, no matter how much of her was whittled away as she approached the exit. Eventually, though, she reached her limit. One more step and she would be nothing. There were shadows here, though, and they felt- uncontaminated, safe for this man.

Carefully she released him to these other shadows and then she turned to make the climb back up. She knew now that she could never leave, but she would face that with all the pieces of herself that she could gather. Eventually she would give in to the legacy, but for now...

For now, she wanted to be Renita Hayes for just a bit longer.