The scene opens to your eyes on the screen, a dreary night with just the slightest bit of rain. There’s a haze in the air, but is it fog? No, it’s different, and you can’t tell why. Clive, however, can fully tell where the haze is coming from. His nose fills with the burning scent of smoke, only growing stronger as the cold wind blow harder and grows hotter on his face. When his eyes open, he notices that he’s been tied to a ladder, one atop of a speeding fire truck. The sirens fade into his ears, growing unbearably loud, as the truck hurdles toward a burning skyscraper. It’s barely noticeable, until the emblem stands clear among the smoke: The burning building is *Hope’s Peak itself.* The truck doesn’t stop, the closer it gets, barreling into the side of the building. The impact loosens the ropes’ grip on Clive’s body, sending him crashing through a window on the upper floor.
Clive lays on the floor, surprised by how weak he feels. Could the Skullheart really be abandoning him in a time like this? Did it really not care how he died? Or… could he die? He had wished, specifically, not to die on this island, but… this, this burning husk of a school, was not on that island.
His face goes paler as he loses air to his lungs, the smoke choking and suffocating him. Support beams crumble around him and flames lick at his arms and legs. He can’t even stand up, and he feels just as helpless as he knows those two teachers, the ones who had cared for him for so long, did so many years ago.
With a scream, his body catches into flames, blue and red fighting against each other, as the shape of his body crumbles away into skeletal ash, and the ceiling above him comes crashing down.
All that’s left of the Ultimate Reporter and his Skullheart are ash and the crumbling remains of a tired school, with one lone bear left to hose off the debris.
