Carry the Names

I dug myself out with names in my teeth I wear the traitor scar where medals used to sleep I am not stone, I am not saved I'm Marcus Fenix, and I carry the names The Pendulum Wars left mud in my blood Young men came home with ghosts in the dust Then E-Day split the ground like a grave And the world learned fear had another face Delta was never a banner to me It was breath in the smoke, boots in debris Every order came heavy, every victory came late And the COG kept grinding men into fate I have buried my rage where the armor bends But it rises at night with the voices of friends They call me a hero like heroes don't break But I know what it costs to stay awake I carry the names, I carry the names Carved into silence, hammered by flames I am not unbreakable, I am the one who stayed When the war tried to bury me I carried the names They locked me away with a traitor's mark For running toward Adam through orders and dark A son can be guilty, a soldier can bleed When duty and love want different things Dom held the line when my hands went cold More brother than blood, more scar than gold I will not make this another song of his grave But every step forward still walks past his name I have hated the crown on the COG wall Hated the way it demands we crawl Still when the ground opens, I answer the same Not for the flag, but the faces and names I carry the names, I carry the names Carved into silence, hammered by flames I am not unbreakable, I am the one who stayed When the war tried to bury me I carried the names Anya was tomorrow I barely could hold Soft hands in a world made of iron and cold Then JD looked back with my anger in his eyes And I heard my own thunder In the words we denied I was never good at forgiving the chain Never good at saying the ache by its name But son, if I fall before daylight remains Take more than my rifle, take all of their names Let the buried know I remember Let the broken know I remain Every grave is a burning ember Every breath is a borrowed flame I am not the wall I am not the war I am just the man Who stands a little more I carry the names, I carry the names Through ash and thunder, through blood and blame I am not unbreakable, I am the one who stayed When the war tried to bury me I carried the names I carry the names, I carry the names Not for the glory, not for the chains I am still standing because someone has to stay When the world forgets the fallen, I carry the names So write this in steel where the silence begins Not every survivor believes that he wins I am not stone, I am not saved I'm Marcus Fenix, and I carry the names