Joplittle The Old Guard/Immortal AU anyone? (cannibalism warning)
Imagine Thomas waking up on the shale with a gasp, still dying but no longer dead. Everyone around him is dead so he starts walking, first in search of Hickey's camp to find his captain (he's not there but Goodsir is, or parts of him, and the sight makes Thomas's stomach roll) and then south, hoping to find Edward's group instead. A part of him, the one that is still dying from scurvy and remembers the betrayal as fiercely as the pain, blames Edward for leaving him. Another remembers a command meeting where Edward raised the point of leaving the sick not because he wanted to but because he felt obliged to do it. That part of him feels sorry for him.
Imagine Edward waking up in a tent with a whimper, still feeling the sting of cuts that have already healed. He is whole again but he knows he won't be for long. He is all the men have, their only chance at survival. That doesn't make it hurt any less when they cut him open. Sometimes, they toy with him - pierce his skin with chains just to see his body heal itself. They laugh, giddy; claiming he's their salvation, that they will live because of him. Edward wonders if that's what his captain had in mind when he gave his last order; wonders if Crozier would be proud of him if he saw him now.
Imagine Thomas finding the camp, finding Edward cut open and discarded like Goodsir while the rest of them eat heartily. A finger twitches, flesh knits itself together, abused vocal chords groan. The realisation that he's not alone, that Edward is like him, makes relief rush through him, followed by white-hot fury when one of the men stands up and cuts into him again. It takes all of Thomas's self-discipline not to march into camp then and there and kill them all with their bare hands. Instead he bides his time until they drag Edward, unconscious and bleeding from his stomach and thighs, into one of the tents, done with him for the time being.
Imagine Edward finding Thomas cradling his face and looking at him when he wakes up. It's the first kind touch he's received in a long while and for one beautiful moment, the memory of pain fades from his mind. Then he is on his feet and they are running, and it's only when they reach the sick camp that Thomas stops and explains that he is like Edward - that he too died and came back to life. Edward doesn't believe him until Thomas takes a knife and cuts his palm. When the wound heals before his eyes, Edward weeps. Thomas doesn't laugh at him for his tears. He is kind, far kinder than Edward deserves. More gentle and loving too.
Imagine Edward and Thomas at the end of the world, bound by fate.
