Will opened his eyes to see the bottom of a bunk above him. He could feel Nico cuddled into his side, feel his presence close to his own. It was relaxing, calming, and for a couple minutes, he thought that it had all been a dream. He thought that maybe, in a different world, that horrible event had happened, but it was too out there for his world, too horribly amazing in the sense that it shattered what everyone had ever known. But he didn't know where he was, didn't know why he was only wearing shorts. Memories were played with but not remembered, fear started to spread over him.

"Nico?" Will shook the other boy awake. "Nico, where are we? What's going on?"

"Will?" Nico opened his eyes to see the panic on his soulmate's face. "Will, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Where are we? What happened?" Will sat up. "Do you know?"

"Yeah, we're okay," Nico promised. "We're okay. Just calm down."

"What happened?" Will held onto Nico's hand as tight as he could. "We were...we were surrounded by fire and then I couldn't breathe and then...and then I woke up here."

Nico sat up to face him. "We...we died, Will. There's no way to sugarcoat that. We died in that building. Do you remember?"

Will leaned his head on Nico's shoulder. "We died..."

"We died," Nico repeated. "But we're okay. We're together, in no more pain. We're okay."

"Where are we?" Will questioned. "This doesn't look like Heaven..."

"That's because it's not," Nico assured him. "It's not Hell, either. It's...okay, this is going to be a really wild and crazy story, but listen through it for me, okay?"

Will kept close to him. "Alright, I'm listening."

Nico closed his eyes. "Okay...it...it started on a battlefield, a battlefield from a different time..."

"I can't taste it..." Will stared at his slop.

"Be glad, it looks horrible." Nico ate slowly. "It would probably taste horrible, too, if we had tastebuds."

"Yeah, probably." Will refused to leave Nico's side. "I don't want to forget you in my next life."

"I know, but it'll be okay," Nico promised. "I'll write on my arm and we'll find each other. It'll be okay."

Will nodded. "It'll be okay..."

Nico kissed his cheek, spent time with his soulmate while he could. In a week, they'd be separated again.

Again...

AN: Sequel up tomorrow: Chasing Life. Follows Leo as he's recruited by the Scrubs and how he tries to help Nico and Will's situation