Never Forget

Never Forget
By Misha

Disclaimer- Not mine. I’m just borrowing them for a few minutes and will return them when I am finished.

Author’s Notes- It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired to write Endless Summer, but I have seen so many theories about MC’s background and fate, most of them angsty and this popped into my mind. It’s inspired by one of my all-time favorite (and most heartbreaking) Buffy and Angel moments from the episode “I Will Remember You” from the first season of Angel. Warning, this is pure angst.

Pairing- Jake/MC

Rating- PG

Summary- “Never forget” those words haunt Jake McKenzie, because he knows they mean so much more if only he could remember…

Words- 1031

“Never forget.”

Jake McKenzie heard those words in his dreams, woke up with them on his lips but if you asked him, he’d never be able to tell you why.

Just like he could never tell you what had made him stop running or how he’d found out that his best friend had never died. Those things had just happened somehow.

Jake remembered the years he’d spent mourning Mike, of living on the run refusing to care about anyone and he remembered the joy of getting Mike back, of working with him to get justice but there was always a piece missing.

Something that he knew he should remember but didn’t. He was sure it was connected to those words and to her. He didn’t know who she was or what she looked like, he never saw her in his dreams, but he could feel her.

Somehow, somewhere he knew this woman… He just didn’t how or where, didn’t understand the hold she had on him when she didn’t even have a face or a name… He just knew that he’d promised never to forget and yet, he had…

He’d forgotten so much.

He’d forgotten everything…

—

“I have to do this.” Stephanie said the words quietly, but with determination.

“Princess, no,” Jake told her, shaking his head. “There has to be another way.”

Stephanie smiled sadly. “There’s not and we both know it. It has to be me. Everything has lead up to this. To this moment. This is how we end it all, how we save the world and stop Rourke once and for all.”

Jake shook his head, not wanting to believe it. “We could be happy here,” he said desperately, “on this island. The others too. We could build lives here. Maybe Phony Stark could be persuaded to leave us in peace.”

Stephanie blinked back tears at his words, wanting so desperately to give in, but knowing she couldn’t. That they couldn’t. “It doesn’t work like that, Jake,” she said softly, “and even if it did… This is about more than us. More than any of us. This is the only way to save the world.”

Jake wanted to protest that he didn’t care about the world, that he didn’t care about anyone other than her and their friends. That she was his world. But he didn’t, because he knew what she would say. Maybe he was the type who only cared for a few people, but she wasn’t like that and it was one of the things he loved about her.

“So what happens,” Jake asked, staring at the lava, “when you throw yourself in there.”

He couldn’t believe he was even voicing that option out loud. It was crazy. She couldn’t do that. There had to be another option.

“Then Vaanu will be hole again,” Stephanie said, eerily calm, “and the timeline will reset itself and everything will be as it should be.”

“And you?” Jake asked quietly, “what about you?”

She shrugged carelessly. “I was never supposed to exist,” she reminded him. “Rourke meddled with things he was never meant to and I was the result.”

“Don’t say that,” Jake told her desperately.

She smiled sadly. “It’s the truth. None of this… None of this was supposed to happen and in a few minutes, it never will.”

“No!” Jake shouted, making her look at him. “I can’t accept that. This was real and it was meant to be. I was meant to know you, Princess, meant to love you.”

Stephanie couldn’t fight the tears. “Maybe you were,” she admitted, “maybe we were destined to have this. This impossible love, but even if it was meant to be doesn’t mean it was meant to last.”

“What will I tell them?” Jake asked, referring to their friends who were fighting for their lives, doing what they could to buy Stephanie time to do this. Though none of them knew exactly what she’d had planned, just like Jake hadn’t until a few minutes before. “They’ll kill me if I let you do this.”

“No, they won’t,” Stephanie said softly, “because they won’t remember, none of you will. Me, this, none of it will ever have happened. Once things are set right, it’ll be like La Huerta never existed at all. Like I never existed.”

Jake shut his eyes, trying to shut out the ache caused by her words. “I can’t accept that,” he told her desperately, “there has to be another way.”

“There isn’t,” Stephanie told him, placing her hands on his face. “This is about so much more than us, Jake. It’s abut the world, about doing what we were meant to do. You were meant to help get me to this place and I… I was meant to do this.” She smiled softly. “But I was also meant to love you and I am so glad I got that chance.”

 “Me too,” Jake told her, smiling weakly. He pulled her close. “And I don’t care about what the ghost is saying, I refuse to believe that I could ever forget you.”

Stephanie didn’t say anything, there was nothing to say. It would also be over in a minute. The volcano bubbled around them, growing stronger.

“This is it,” Stephanie said softly. She pressed her lips against Jake’s and he immediately deepened the kiss, digging his hands in her hair and pulling her close, as if he was trying to keep her there forever. But after a long moment, they pulled apart.

“I love you,” Stephanie said and then she stepped into the void, letting her body fall towards the lava.

“I love you too,” Jake told her standing there helplessly, watching her fall, “and I don’t care what you say, I know I’ll never forget…”

“Never forget,” Jake muttered into his pillow once more, tossing and turning in his sleep. In his dreams, it was also so clear and yet so far away, because the details never stayed with him.

Nothing except those two words that were imprinted on his mind and soul. His vow to the woman he’d loved and lost, whose very existence was wiped from time and from memory, but never from his heart.

• End