Bronx finally came close enough that she knew he should've been able to see her. And yet, the male dog halted several yards away, eyes sweeping the lavish forest.

And oddly enough, they passed right through her.

But Gypsy froze when Bronx's eyes stopped on Riley and Ginger. She drew a sharp intake of breath, ready to hurl herself between them and her murderous ex-mate of a dog.

And yet, Bronx barely held gaze with them. Instead, as another dog barked particularly loud from across the tree-line, Bronx swerved decisively that way and began stomping through undergrowth.

She kept her eyes on the foliage behind which he'd disappeared. And for several long moments, the she-dog fully expected Bronx to re-emerge, running at her with his teeth bared.

But he didn't. And she sighed, looking down at her pups with more relief than she'd ever felt in life.

"It's okay, we can keep playing." Gypsy said calmly. Ginger and Riley gave her odd faces, but soon enough were distracted by Star and Kiwi play-bowing at them.

"Yay!" Kiwi said excitedly, but then receded and bounced around her mother's paws. While her yellow and white pup did so, Gypsy felt herself slide into deep thought.

North didn't lie. Because Bronx can't see me, Star, or Kiwi. He could only see the pups of my previous litter, and he doesn't know they're mine.

She felt a jolt of estatic justice. But that means that somehow, Bronx led to my death as well. Because I wouldn't have been on that road, that day, if Bronx had protected us.

Instead of telling me to murder his own son.

She lifted her head, and pondered on about how Bronx would be alone for eternity. His personality wouldn't allow him to make new friends. And he'd killed his own father dog, mother dog, and Obelisk's mate; his own Gran-dog. Who else couldn't Bronx see? North, as well?

Gypsy then stiffened. Won't Ace be able to see him? Her nerves spiked as she wondered how that could turn out.

Could dogs be hurt here?

All throughout the rest of the day, Gypsy wondered this. And yet; it was funny, because she didn't need to. The white Pitbull found her question didn't need an answer.

One day... That's how long Bronx lasted, before she saw him heading for the hills.

Gypsy had taken her puppies back to the cloudy-floored gate area, because they loved to play there and greet the new heaven dogs.

She kept an eye on them, of course; but the next day she also tried to lookout for Bronx's brown and white pelt. The heavy-set male dog was hard to spot among so many others, but his distinctive gait gave him away.

After nearly an hour of watching him dwindle into the distant grasses, lifting higher and higher as he climbed a hill and then rounded a bend to try and find a pathway through the valleys, then disappear. Gypsy finally knew.

He had gone to his second life. His second chance. His "reincarnation," and just like that!

She didn't know how to feel about it. Because on one hand, he would be forgetting his previous self until he returned. And if he'd had a previous self, then, well-

Her thought was cut off. She saw something hazy re-appear at the foot of the hills. Gypsy's eyes flickered back towards her pups, focusing, then reversing back towards the horizon as she squinted her eyes to look.

Bronx had re-appeared. The deceitful spirit shimmered into view, like one of the deceased heaven arrivals. For a second, the white Pittie wondered if he had died the second he had made it to his new life.

No.

Her shoulder-fur lifted with a chill as she realized what Bronx had succumbed himself to.

He's stuck here. He can't leave. Mind racing, she flicked her ears back.

It's like he resets back to the point that he started from, and cannot Cross Over. Until... When?

And of course, God appeared beside her. He stayed in his human form this time, and dozens of dogs flocked to his feet among the clouds. Gypsy's halo shone brighter around him, bouncing off the surrounding dog's pelts and illuminating them with a twinkling shine. She felt energy fizz in her paws, and joined her puppies in their gleeful approach.

"Until he has loved as many dogs as he has hurt or killed, my dear." God smiled, and then winked at her. His face was smooth, unblemished, with a pale glow of heavenly light. His robe shone with a thousand sparkles, from a thousand different dimensions of heaven, and he leaned down to pet all of the dogs he could reach.

"And as you know, he doesn't yet know what that is. To love other dogs," God rumbled kindly and rubbed his hands together in a calming, silent motion. He smiled with his lips, not his teeth- and his own halo was a thousand shades of gold atop his brown hair. A light beard bordered the man's strong jaw, but it was a meaningless feature to the dogs.

Because the dogs in fact knew that God could take any shape. Man, woman, or canine; and therefore. So, his beautiful facely features were not a point of focus.

His love was.

"So he'll learn." God sighed knowingly, and bent forward to finally pet Gypsy. He angled his hand beneath the halo, and then leaned back before snapping his fingers.

At the quiet sound, over a thousand toys of different variety, shape, size, and texture appeared among the ground.

But not just on the clouds; Gypsy could see the toys stretching for miles- far and wide in between; balls and kongs and squeaky toys and chew bones and rope toys and stuffed animals. There must've been toys all the way into the ocean and forest.

Her puppies were already leaping for the nearest one; a bright pink pig toy that looked soft as cotton.

With happy tears welling in the dog's eyes, Gypsy began to speak.

"Thank you. You're so kind and...- You-you just...-" A dog's vocabulary was not doing Gypsy justice, and she stuttered.

"It's okay, my child. It's not about me." His tipped his head kindly, then kneeled down to be closer to Gypsy. He stroked her head, and the heads of the eager dogs around her. Gypsy caught the scent of Obelisk, and could tell that he was somewhere near; receiving the same attention from God just over her shoulder.

"It's about you. All of you, and what you do for the world. How you help people, love people, and each other. You all are as heaven's children were always destined to be."

With the dog's bodies pressed close around her, and love pouring in from every heart in vicinity, Gypsy felt that she had never been in a happier place.