He remembered going to sleep in his bed, with her, but he awoke in a dark void.

'Booker!'

His head burned like the victims of the Devil's Kiss.

'Do not make promises you can't keep.'

He was confused, like the people who get dragged away by the Undertow of the sea.

'Do you get used to it? The killing?'

He heard Elizabeth, and even though he wanted to scream out her name, to call out to her, to grab blindly around to even touch her, his body was not in his Possession.

'NO! STOP THAT!'

Her voice escalated into desperation, and so did his efforts to Charge to her side, to help her, to comfort her.

"She could never control them as much as she wanted."

A man's voice Shocked him out of his attempts to flay his arms.

"Even if she could, she wanted this to happen."

He wanted to speak, and his efforts to Jockey his voice worked.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"Huh, his thoughts are more coherent than most if those are his first questions. It seems that we finally have a mark on Tails, brother."

A woman's voice that had an accent reminiscent of Elizabeth's. He had more questions now, but his voice was once again lost. He could feel his own desperation to find Elizabeth grow, and he feared that he would Murder someone to get some answers.

"This one is different from the ones that came."

"The ones that will come."

"The ones that are coming."

But these two were annoying, and their talk reminded him Of Crows.

"He grows wary of this conversation, sister. Let us grant him what he needs, before he snaps from his own thoughts."

His head hurt even worse now. Before, it had been a burning sensation. And now, it felt as though a Bronco was Bucking him in his cranium.

He could neither scream, cry nor move, and had to endure the torture of his mind until he managed to glimpse through something.

'I can't be with him. He shouldn't have to know of my past. But I still want him to know. But...'

His beloved's voice echoed in his head, and the words made him freeze.

'I'm a monster. He doesn't deserve someone like me. I'm just going to hurt him if I stay with him.'

No, she wouldn't... she couldn't... please, don't…

'I need to leave him.'

NO! SHE WASN'T HURTING HIM, SHE WAS HIS LIGHT! PLEASE DON'T GO!

'I'm sorry, I am so, really, sorry.'

Don't leave him alone. It was all he asked for.

He begged for the voices to stop, for them to stop tormenting him as her words repeated, and repeated, and repeated.

She found herself in darkness.

She called this place The Ocean, for all the Lighthouses would be here.

But now, it was just a black void. She was standing on nothing, yet she was still standing.

A sob reached her ears.

She traced it back to it's source.

She immediately wished she hadn't.

To her left, laid the one she had devoted herself to, the one who made her disregard her oath to never settle down, to never be caged again.

And he was crying.

Streams of tears flowed from his eyes, and tracks of blood were dried on his nose and mouth. His lips were torn, as though his mouth was pryed open and forced apart.

His eyes were rolled back, and the only sound in the dark world was his sobbing and his words.

'don't leave me alone, please, don't leave me alone.'

His words pierced through her chest. She always wanted to leave, to adventure, but every time she did, he was always left behind.

She couldn't control herself any longer.

She held her lover in her arms, and wept with him.

"I won't leave you again. I swear." She whispered into his ear, trying to control her uncontrollable sobs and tears.

" 'liz...?" His throat was sore, and he could barely speak.

"I'm sorry I left you behind, I'm sorry I didn't think about how you felt." She couldn't take it anymore, and she cracked.

Her tears were flowing freely, and her arms tightened around him.

"It's... not your... fault... 'liz." His raspy voice made her doubt his words. It was always her fault! She was the one with the flaws in their relationship, not him.

"HOW? After all that you've helped me, after all that you've done for me..." She choked on her words

.

His cracked, torn lips managed to move, and he pursed them against her forehead.

"I... saw things... I... saw what had... happened... to you." He gasped for air, and his arms wrapped themselves shakily around her.

"You... hate your... self. For not... doing...enough... for people. For... killing." She started shaking in his weak embrace. "You hate... being caged up."

"But... you had... to." He wheezed, and she could feel his warm blood drip.

"I... don't hate... you... You are... my song... bird after all." His arms fell to his side, and she could do naught when he grew limp.

She couldn't take it.

She screamed. In despair and in hate. In despair, that she couldn't do anything to save him, and in hate, that the world was cruel.

"She's very melodramatic, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is. If she bothered to check, she would find that he's still breathing."

Ignoring the people who said that, she scrambled to find a pulse, to feel his breath, and she found it.

She took a breath to compose herself.

"Why is he in that state, Lutece?" She spat the name of the person that made her life hell.

"He has a role to play in your tragedy."

"A vital one, which requires that he knows about you."

"So we informed him."

"In the quickest way possible."

Her glare grew tenfold for every line of word spoken by the two in front of her.

"BY TORTURING HIM?" Her voice was raised involuntarily.

"Well, the others weren't as lucky."

Others...?

Oh, god.

Her hands covered her mouth in terror.

"You mean..."

"Yes."

"He's the first to have survived."

"But certainly not the last."

"Unless he's the only one."

"Why are you doing this?" Her voice was low, and she started shaking again.

Not in shock. This time, in anger.

"There is a storm coming. One that the both of you are requirements to get through."

"Columbia isn't, wasn't and shan't be, the last of it's kind."

"Rapture is where you should, should have, or should not, end. He is a deciding factor to this."

She blinked, and she was gone from The Ocean, now back at home, where the moon's light shone into from the window.

Rapture? The word had no meaning to her.

She looked down at her Lighthouse. He was fine now, and was sleeping soundly. Her trembling fingers rose to touch his lips, and she crumpled in relief when she found them without injury. The blood that flowed from his lips were something that terrified her.

She hugged him tightly. He wasn't going to be harmed. She will make sure of that.

She was avoiding him. Why, he didn't know.

But the memories of her in that floating city…

His nose bled.

They were enlightening to who she is, and why she chose this world in particular.

She wanted to find a world where she could take a breather from her adventures to other worlds. One where she could be an ordinary person, where she could come and go as she pleased without anyone stopping her, where she could relax.

And then, she met him.

She was tired after an adventure, and couldn't read a map properly without her vision swimming around. He was a guide who helped tourists around. That was their first meeting a year ago in spring, at the train station with her barely able to stand on her two feet. He helped her to get around the city not only because it was his job, but because he felt a connection with her. And another reason, one he couldn't forget. How could he? After all, who didn't know how to read a map?

He knew her history, he could read her like an open book, but now, he could only guess why she was avoiding him.

He had to get some answers.

But she was growing distant, and dodged any questions he had.

She didn't want him to ask anything related to her past, he assumed.

So, he stopped trying to ask her, and tried to continue on with life, continue being there for her, and continue to worry for her, wondering if she was alright.

She was grateful for that, but it continued to eat away at him on the inside. They had been together for a year now, and all the while she was suffering on the inside. He wanted to help her, but she didn't want him to ask. So, he stopped asking all together, for he was worried that anything he asked would bring up bad memories.

But he still cared for her.

"What's that?"

The opened letter in Elizabeth's hands shook.

" 'liz, what's that?" He asked.

"It's…" She took a breath to calm herself down.

"It's from the hospital."

He froze.

No, this wasn't happening. He told them not to send a letter. He specifically told the doctor that.

"You have cancer?"

He's going to kill Dr. Pym.

"Well, not me, just my-"

"YOUR BRAIN, LUNGS AND LIVER?"

Shit, they even included those in the letter? Pym's going to die in the most painful way possible.

She staggered towards him, eyes watering.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He couldn't stop his bitter laugh.

"And make you worry? Make you change yourself, what you want to do with your time, for me?"

She knew what he was talking about.

He wanted her to live on with her life without worrying for him, without devoting herself for him. Without locking herself in a cage again.

"When did this happen?"

"Doctors said about eight months ago, but even they're not sure."

"Do you at least know how?"

"Most likely from the Tears." He muttered as he looked down, earlier bravado gone.

Her arms wrapped around him, and her tears moistened his shirt. He laid his head on hers.

"I'm so sorry."

His vision blurred.

"It's not your-"

Her shriek was almost as loud as his body dropping onto the floor with a thud.

"We're sorry, Ms Dewitt. We did all we could."

"It's" she choked back a sob. "It's alright, you did your best."

The doctor nodded, and clasped her shoulder.

"You need to stay strong, for him."

She didn't respond, and only shrugged off his hand and walked into the room.

Her eyes' glowered at the two standing next to him.

"You did this to him." She didn't accuse them. She stated a fact.

"Yes." They agreed.

"Why?"

"You do not know now,"

"But you'll know why when you should."

Their cryptic answer didn't surprise her, but her heart was still shattered.

"But we will share this with you,"

"When you're buried at sea,"

"He'll be there. Oh, and a word from him,"

Rosalind passed her a piece of paper.

Her blue eyes widened, and she didn't even notice that the 'twins' were gone.

' Don't hate someone just because they share the same name, because they share a common experience. Don't be what you hate. And remember, I'll be waiting for you, 'liz, and I love you. '

She crumpled to the ground, next to his still body.

He remembered.

Booker… no.

Comstock remembered.

Remembered pulling me through the tear despite me telling him not to, despite me trying so hard to tell him not to, despite Booker pulling me back.

I could not feel anything, only my rage, my sorrow and my grief.

Rage at Comstock, for kidnapping me and subjecting me to all that he did.

Sorrow, for not being able to do anything about it, to do anything for him.

Grief, for causing him such pain, and for not seeing it.

His letter was still with me, in my pocket. Despite all that I have gone through, it never left my side, and nothing could do anything to it.

He would never leave my side.

She stilled her shaking fists.

The tear of the Big Daddy was behind him.

It could be so easy, to take revenge for all that her 'father' did.

His last letter wrinkled slightly in her pocket.

No…

He would not have let her do this.

She entered a different Tear, and Comstock's apologies rang out in her head.

Yes, those would have to do.

If not for him, Comstock would have died. Painfully.

He better be waiting for her, because if he isn't, she'll kill him instead.

'I see all the doors, and what's behind of them.

And incredibly, behind one of those, I see him.

He's smiling, but he knows it's not yet time for us to be together.

I have to die to meet him again.

To finally be with him.

And, Atlas would die after all this is over.

A win-win situation.

'Sally, I guess this is goodbye.

Don't cause any trouble when I'm not around, ok?'

Her heart beats one last time.

Her vision grows dark.

'I'll finally see you again, my Light house.'

She sees again.

A harbour, one that he said he wanted to stay close to, in front of a lighthouse.

She sees them.

Sally, all grown up and wearing a perfectly white dress, but she still holds her headless doll.

Him, wearing his typical shirt and jeans.

Her eyes tear up, as she walks to him, smiling. They embrace, and his scent was just as she remembered.

"Did you receive my letter?"

It was still with her, even after death. She nodded, her face still pressed against his chest.

"So you didn't do anything you would have regretted then."

She nodded again.

It has been long.

Too long.

She shook.

"I missed you." She sobbed.

"And I you." He ran his fingers through her hair, his way of comforting her.

"You look different." He was trying to distract her from her thoughts. Just like back then.

She couldn't help herself from giggling.

"And you look the same."

She could feel his shoulders shrugging.

"I died, so I guess I went to heaven."

"Why heaven?" He was never one to believe in religion, so what brought that change in him?

"Because you're an angel. So where else would I be?"

She missed his jokes, his jabs and his humour.

She missed him.

"Don't leave me again."

"I'll never leave you again, my Songbird."

He meant that. He would always be with her and would never abandon her. Her heart tightened slightly.

It was she who abandoned him.

Her arms tightened around his neck, as she brought herself up.

"And I'll never leave you, my Lighthouse."

Their lips locked, and at that very moment, Elizabeth didn't regret a single thing she did do. Would have done. Will do.

For none of them would be able to compare to, be able to tarnish that singular moment in her lives.