A Rebirth

 I was supposed to head directly to the tower I think, but I didn't... I couldn't head off alone to the Newborn's Grave... I was too... scared. 

I went back to the others I wanted Drake to accompany me. I found him amidst the fighting. The corpse was still following me and as I approached Drake in the middle of all the fighting... The worst happened. I called out Drake's name, but my words were drowned out by the sudden cry of birds, multiple birds, I glanced up in time to see a number of convocation birds swooping down. Everyone was too busy to pay much attention and the other fears were probably too busy too help anyway, I took aim, it seemed like they were coming for me and I figured this was where I was going to die, but I was wrong... It was much worse. They dove past me and attacked the corpse. As I realized what was happening I screamed and Drake heard that at least. He turned to see what was happening. I tried to run over and help, but suddenly Drake was grabbing me from behind, stopping me from running to my certain death as the birds began to tear the corpse apart. One of them stabbed it's beak into the corpse's eye and I felt a rush of pain through where my own eye had been. 

It was over shortly and I was in agony, clutching at my eye socket as soon nothing was left of the corpse. The birds looked directly at me and with one last Caw they were gone and with it they had taken my last hope. It was my fault... I had taken the corpse into danger that the fears on our side couldn't protect it from, if I headed directly to the tower I would have still been in the relatively protected area they had painstakingly made, it would have been dangerous, but why should that matter. It doesn't matter if I die, it only matters that the newborn lives and now I've screwed that up because I was afraid. I was right the first time. Humans are weak... I never would have been so stupid before. Emotions, like fear... love... they're just weaknesses!

Drake was still holding me, hugging me almost as I collapsed to my knees. I could feel tears on my cheeks, everyone was still fighting around us, but for what now? Did any of them even know we no longer had a chance?

I looked around at the people fighting what I knew now was a hopeless fight. We were all going to die... Even if not now than later, the forest would keep growing with no way to stop it. As my eyes drifted from person to person I felt something. A heart beat... But not of a normal heart. It was calling to me... the beat of a clockwork heart... There was someone running with a cane in hand and the cane held a clockwork beating heart. 

I felt my own heart beating as hope surged... A piece of the newborn remained. All I had done might have proved worthless, I had sacrificed so much for nothing, but despite it all, someone else hadn't failed. We could still win.

I let out a cry of happiness as the ground began to shook shortly after and then a tower of steel and cable erupted from the ground stabbing through the tree at the center of the forest and then the world erupted.

The area had been chaos before as people fought, but now the world was chaos. Roots and vines tore from the ground and smashed the area, one barely missing Drake and I and soon it was met by Cables, the tree and the newborn entwining, battling for dominance. It was horrible and beautiful, but it was also... wrong. 

People began to flee, the job was over and this place was too dangerous now, I could feel Drake starting to drag me away, but I was watching the fight between the two gods. Past and future fighting over the present and I could feel it... The newborn was losing. It wasn't strong enough, but why? I resisted Drake's attempts to pull me away, ignored his pleading as he begged me to run.

Why wasn't the Newborn strong enough? They should be at least equal in strength if everything went right, so what was...

The past belongs to organic life, plants and animals, but the future belongs to steel and there it was organic life versus steel, the newborn was a tower of perfect steel fighting a tree... but I knew suddenly what was wrong. The Newborn was the future and the future wasn't... just steel. It was a union...

Steel and... 

My hand ran up to my face and I felt my cheeks, wet with tears, scarred with injuries... I knew what had to be done. I pulled away from Drake suddenly and turned to him.

"Drake... I'm sorry... I love you," I told him and then turned and ran towards my master... Towards the future... I felt a cable slam into me, my bones shattered at the impact, I died in seconds, but more importantly my body... my flesh was absorbed. 

The future is a union of flesh and steel, without both the Newborn is incomplete and now with this final sacrifice... I had made the Newborn complete.The fight turned... the two were evenly matched now and the fight became a stalemate. The two battled until both had spent most of their power. I'm not sure how things looked from the outside, whether the forest vanished or rapidly decayed or what, but both vanished from this world retreating to their domains to lick their wounds.

The world could return to normal now.