The next time he found her, he was driven mad by what he found, another immortal daring to touch her as he pressed her against the wall. The scent of her sinfully sweet blood filled the air as it spilled with every movement of the boy as he tore deeper into her throat, dripping upon the dirty floor of the building he'd been drawn to. In the short moment it took another scarlet drop to hit the ground beneath her outstretched hand, he had torn the youthful male from her and crushed the fool beneath his pounding fists.

Turning to her again, he picked up her weak, broken body from the cold cement, feeling the rage drain from him and leave behind an echoing emptiness as he looked into her slowly blinking amber eyes. It seemed like it took all her strength just to keep opening them, fighting the pull to just let them stay shut forever. Gently taking her limp hand into his, he pressed a kiss to the mocha skin before holding it against his cheek, feeling the heat slowly leaving her body along with her blood.

"Miro..." He almost cried at the sound of her breathlessly whispering his name, her eyes shut for a final time as he pulled her against his chest and screamed out his sorrow until his throat nearly bled.

He'd been too late to save her, only able to learn about her after she was gone. And she had been amazing, a brilliant student at the top of her class, excelling in science and technology. If she had lived longer, if she had been allowed to thrive, she could have potentially helped him in his studies. Having seen the notes she left behind, he knew she would have been a perfect assistant to him.

If only it didn't seem like half her notes were missing.

--------

It took him three more of her miraculous rebirths before the technology of the world was advanced enough to get results from one of the tests. Each time he'd watched her die before then, he'd felt like part of him died with her. Something that should be impossible for an immortal to experience outside of their initial change. And even then, they didn't really die.

Again and again, Miro had tried to figure out why he felt so drawn to her, what connected them on such a deep level. What made his frozen heart try to beat at her mere presence in his world. What had kept him from recognizing her, from sensing her, at the first meeting she had vaguely mentioned during her lifetime she'd spent with him in their house? Why had he not thought to have her expand on that subject back then? He was supposed to be smarter than this, so why had he been so foolish?

Had he been so overwhelmed with happiness at simply being with her that he had ignored thoughts about anything beyond the time they had spent together, only concerned with each moment they had? The simple answer was a resounding yes. He'd not wanted to think of anything other than what had, at that point in time, been their 'now' because he hadn't wanted to think about her past or future deaths. He'd been a fool, not for the first time and most certainly not for the last.

It wasn't until that third rebirth that he'd thought to ask her to do something so simple, he wondered why he had failed to even think of it before then. You would think over the course of his 600 years of immortality, that he would have considered something as simple as a journal for her to record her memories of her previous lives into.

It was her silent refusal that had taken him by surprise, the first time in all of her lives that she had done something so defiant. It was that defiance that caused the mad rage to flow through him that day, leaving him feeling alone and heartbroken once more.

Leaving him wondering if she would still be able to love him in her next life or if she would finally leave him, empty and alone in this human infested world with nobody to forgive him his sins. After all that he had done, he wouldn't blame her if she did so.

It was the results of the test that gave him the final push into his madness, the reason not to ever let her go, regardless of what she wanted. There was still hope for them and he wouldn't let go, no matter how much he had to sacrifice to have her.

--------

She hadn't been reborn for over a hundred years, leaving him almost panicked that she was intentionally avoiding her rebirth cycle. One hundred years exactly had been the longest she had ever taken, a time frame that had passed over a decade ago. He'd spent the whole time preparing the world for her coming, gathering everything he had so much as the smallest feeling he might need, making sure the world she would be born into would be safe for her. He wanted everything to be perfect.

How could it be perfect if she wasn't in it though?!

He raged through the city he'd built for her, his subjects fleeing in fear as he began tearing the streets apart around him. It wasn't until he was storming down an abandoned road in an area far away from the central tower that he felt it. That familiar warmth followed by that oh so desperately desired beat he'd been waiting to feel for longer than he wanted to admit.

She was here, somewhere close by. Looking around, he couldn't see anything, no sign of movement or even of life in this deathly quiet part of the city. Until he'd killed the majority of them, fearing for her safety, other immortals had flocked to this area decades ago. After their massacre, few remained and the humans avoided the area like it was cursed. So what was his little love doing here?

He began to wonder what she would look like this time, each of the previous times showing how vast the changes could be. She had taken on so many different looks, seeming to freely mingle her spirit among the various races of the planet instead of sticking to one group to be born among. When he saw her come around the corner though, a hint of fear in her chestnut brown eyes as she saw him, he was hit with nothing but familiarity as he took in every part of her.

From her slender body ready to dart for cover if she felt threatened to her long black hair matching the darkness of the midnight sky, everything seemed to tell him he had seen her before, long ago when he was still just a human.

"Dea?" He was careful with her name, pronouncing it gently as Day-uh, the name of his own personal goddess. How could he have forgotten?