Rakta had seen his death long ago. He'd savored the idea for a little over eleven years, and he was not disappointed.

He had always known it would end with Tamsus, because that was how it had begun.

The pain was less than he had imagined. Or maybe he had just lived in pain for so long he couldn't distinguish between the new wounds and the old.

He held on long enough to see the two events his heart had hungered after for what felt like forever. Hatter had challenged an Ace and he had won. He had challenged the Heart's Ace no less, and he'd won. Rakta felt a dull sense of gratification that he had been right about the Real Worlder.

Mavros had brought her own ruin right into the castle.

Then, she had died. Died at the hands of the Spade King and Rakta had been unable to begrudge the boy his pound of flesh. His life had been just as hellish as Rakta's, perhaps more so with the knowledge that he might have done something earlier to end her reign.

The girl had cried over him. Tears had splashed onto his skin, warm and salty and he had been astonished and grateful. Perhaps the tear marks would bear as his proof in the life after this, that he had regained a scrap of his honor. Perhaps they would allow him brief passage into the peace Avinos had resided in for these past years.

A peace he knew was not truly his to share.

Slipping away had been easier than he had ever thought it to be. When he was a boy, he had always imagined that he would hang on tenaciously. That death would have to fight and claw to claim him as her own.

He hadn't expected to run toward her with open arms.

There had been blackness, then... a golden field.

Rakta looked around, taking in the pale silvery sky, the soft, sweet breeze. Somewhere to his left, hidden by trees with emeralds for leaves he could hear the merry splash of a small stream. The scent of apples and cherry blossoms hung heavy in the air.

He inhaled deeply and was surprised by the way his chest expanded when it wasn't crippled by mourning and guilt. Rakta felt like he could jump straight up through the silver sky, like he could run for miles and never tire.

He felt gloriously light. There was nothing tying him down, nothing that weighted his shoulders or bowed his neck.

A soft swishing, different from the ripple of the grasses in the wind sounded behind him, but Rakta didn't turn.

He already knew who it was.

Avinos rested her head on his shoulder and he sighed, still looking around at this world of precious stones and valuable metal. For a moment that might have been seconds or years, he let the comfortable silence stretch between them, like nothing bad had ever happened.

But then, his question burned too fiercely. "How are you here?"

Avinos laughed and Rakta closed his eyes at the sound. It put the sound of the stream to shame. She turned to look at him more fully, taking his face in her hands. Her soft green dress rippled around her legs in the soft breeze, her feet bare on the ground. Rakta smiled at the simple cut and the color; one he had long ago come to associate with all the good in his life. She smiled and said, "The same way you are."

He smiled back softly, his eyes blurring slightly, though it was difficult to retain any sort of feeling beyond that glorious lightness. Chuckling slightly, he rested his hand against hers where it was still pressed into his cheek. "How long can you stay?"

Now Avinos frowned, before a quick understanding lit her beautiful sunset eyes. Her thumb rubbed along his cheekbone, wiping at the place Alice's tears had fallen and whispered, "This isn't the after, my Ace."

His eyes closed. He'd been waiting to hear those words spoken by this voice for a very long time. Then her words caught up and he quietly asked, "Then where is it?"

Looking around, he couldn't imagine this place to be any kind of punishment. It was too still and soft and... kind. It was too lovely, regardless of how lonely it might seem. Avinos took a step closer to him, until their breath mingled in the air between them. She took his hand, then turned him gently, looking toward the platinum skyline. With a small smile, she gestured with her free hand and said, "It's an in-between. It's a decision."

His heart slowed. "What kind of decision?"

"Well, I suppose that's up to each of us, isn't it?" Avinos laid her head once more on his shoulder, looking out toward the never ending sea of gold.

Rakta felt a small shiver of hesitation run through him. "I can't follow you, can I?"

Avinos shrugged, the movement tiny. "I guess that depends on what you decide. I would think that the situation is actually in reverse, Rakta."

He frowned down at her and she smiled, the expression small and content. With another sigh, she gestured around and said, "I'm stuck here. In the in-between. I chose not to go forward."

Rakta's heart wrenched slightly, the feeling lingering. He released her fingers and took one long step back. His voice heartbroken to his own ears, he asked, "You have found no peace, then? The one thought that had comforted me for years... it was a lie. You have been here, alone?"

She smiled. "Oh, not as alone as one might suspect."

Rakta looked down, then frowned when he found himself in his Diamond uniform, the red jacket tailored to perfection over a loose white shirt, dark pants blending into darker boots. He hadn't worn clothes like this since... since...

"Since I died," Avinos said softly. When he flinched, she put her hand to his cheek and said, "It was not your fault, Rakta."

His breath shuddered out and he shook his head. Thickly, he replied, "How could it not be?"

Avinos chuckled again, then wrapped her arms around him. Rakta stood frozen, like he had so many years ago, his body aching to embrace her. Speaking into his ear, she whispered, "Do you really think I would have waited here in this semi-paradise if I blamed you, love? Wouldn't I have moved on?"

"Why didn't you?" he asked, his voice choked. "You should have gone on, Avi. You should have left the memories behind and gone to what you deserved. You should have left me to wander in this loneliness for eternity, because it is much more than I deserve."

Avinos laughed once more, except now the sound was watery. With a sigh, she said, "Oh, Rakta. Still as foolish and as blind as ever."

Pulling back slightly, she looked up at him, her eyes glowing with tears, and said, "A semi-paradise shared with you is better than anything else that might have been offered. A hell spent by your side would be better than anything else."

"You could have been here, alone, for years." Rakta gently wiped away an escaped tear, his gaze soft.

She rested her head on his chest. "I would have waited ten thousand years for the mere promise that you would join me here, in this loneliness as you think of it, before I went to something peaceful alone."

Those words broke the ragged mess of what was left of his reserve. Guilt and fear and horror washed away under her healing tide and Rakta bent his head, pressing his mouth softly to hers.

Fate was kind in that she tasted exactly like he had remembered.

He didn't remember falling to the ground. The grasses formed a comfortable mattress beneath them as he hovered over Avinos, her hands running through his hair, which he had made sure to trim short and neat before that final battle.

He had not wanted to arrive looking like Tamsus in the off chance that he was actually granted the privilege of seeing his beloved princess.

It felt like they had been apart less than a day, those lifetimes of torment washing away from him in every breath against his mouth, every whisper of her lips against his. If Rakta had realized how easily he could be repaired, he would not have struggled to remain so unbroken.

In a span of time that was much too short, Avinos pulled away, then rested her head on his chest, leaving him to stare up at the sky, which had turned the rosy hue of pink quartz. With a smile, he asked, "What do the stars here look like, I wonder?"

Avinos shifted slightly, her fingers playing with the laces on his shirt. "Like diamonds set in a sapphire of deepest blue."

They were quiet for another stretch of indeterminable time until Rakta said, "Even with all I have done, I can remain here -- in this jeweled place -- with you... forever?"

"If that is your decision," she murmured.

Rakta laughed, the sound bright and clear, taking him a little by surprise. "I could not be parted from you again, Avi. That would destroy me."

As he said the words, a sense of finality settled heavily in his chest for a moment, before it disappeared, leaving him feather-light again. This place had registered his decision and he knew he had consigned himself to an eternity here.

He drew his fingers through Avinos' hair, rubbing the silky strands between his fingertips, studying their color.

Avinos shivered slightly under his touch and said, "Then I supposed we'll just have to stay here, where I can make sure you stay in one piece. After all, you did promise me that you would do everything in your power to keep yourself from being hurt."

"The only one who ever had any power to hurt me was you, Avi," Rakta murmured, turning his face so that it was pressed into her hair where it flowed over his shoulder.

Night came, but he found that he no longer needed to sleep.

The night could have passed slowly, or in a blink of an eye. Time did not pass here like it had moved in Wonderland.

Slowly, Rakta became aware of voices. Sitting up, he looked around, then his eyes widened.

"No," he breathed. "He killed him. Why is he here?"

Rakta tried to get up, but Avinos held him down. "You cannot interfere, my Ace."

"But--" Rakta started to argue until Avinos took his face in her hands once more.

Smiling, she said, "He is not here to stay. Can't you see that? Look closely."

Rakta frowned at her before turning his gaze once more to Mad Hatter, who had been joined by a man Rakta did not recognize. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on Mad, then gasped quietly in surprise.

There, around his wrists, circling around his chest and over his shoulders, were soft, shimmering ropes of gold. As Rakta watched, the ropes seemed to strain, as though they were trying to drag Mad right through the earth below his feet. Startled, he turned his gaze back to Avinos, who explained, "He is not here to die, Rakta. He is here to put his ghosts to rest."

"I want to thank him," Rakta said hoarsely, now unable to look away from Mad.

Avinos placed her mouth lightly over his, then pulled back to say, "He already knows. You are not the ghost he needs to let go."

Rakta glanced at the man standing next to Mad, jumping slightly when a carefree, happy laugh floated from him, back to where they were.

For a long time, or what might have been a long time, Rakta watched the two men talk. He watched the golden ropes pull Mad further and further into the ground. He didn't seem to notice them.

Until, one day or maybe three weeks or five years later, Mad left. Rakta blinked and he was gone.

Sighing, he lay back down, smiling when Avinos curled up into his side, her lips on his throat.

Whispering, she said, "Rest, Rakta."