Phoebe did not know much about not existing. She was and she always had been, possessing no clear memory of anything before. She was light and beauty and feeling, a veritable source of all that was good in the world.

She knew nothing but life. And she was quite sure what life was. It was the same as she, just so much more. Infinitely more. Power and brightness and everything that made up life. Phoebe knew her role and her role was to extend the passion of life.

None of that included fading away.

The sensation was like falling asleep, except a sleep that seeped through her bones. It came all at once like the snap of the tree that produced feet in seconds. Perhaps it was the tree that did this to her, the Dearth. If there was one thing more unlike Phoebe it was the Dearth. Maybe she could not be so close to something so evil and so unlike life.

It was like watching the tide pull away from the shore, soft, smooth, and eternal, something that wanted to bring her into something deeper.

She couldn't speak.

Geth was there. She had expected such a thing. She did not know what she would have felt if he had not come. He was hers.

He didn't say much. She preferred it that way. He just held her, his hands stroking her hair, smiling down at her with that calm, sad smile.

Was he supposed to do anything? Was there anything he could do?

He did nothing.

So she trusted him. He was wonderful and powerful and one of the wisest being in Foo.

Her body shook. From her bones to her skin and through her blood, she shook. Through it all he held her.

It was not supposed to end this way. Was it even over? She was not sure she understood the definition of over. She was here and here was Geth. There was no more and there was nothing less.

Then she was gone.

Being gone was nothing. Just… nothing. Not the chimes and music of life. Rather, a quiet peace.

Phoebe wasn't.

Centuries could have passed. Not that she had ever understood such fullness of time. Or it might have been a second. Somewhere between eternity and the blink of an eye she was once again awake.

She stood in a field. Grass stretched far into the horizon on every direction until they melted with the mountains. The grass was long, a brilliant emerald green, like silk underneath her bare feet.

This made sense. She smiled and breathed in the taste of the air. Warm and clean and full of life. The sun… when had the sun looked like this? It was big and bright and hot. She stared into it. She had always been able to stare into the sun, and she took in its beams happily.

Geth.

She turned, desperate for the sight of something else. This scene, this life, it didn't matter. Her eyes, cleared by the sunlight, searched madly for something, hating the moments until she saw it in the impossible distance.

A tree.

Geth.

The grass was more slippery than she had expected, but it served only to speed her along. She ran, faster and faster until she was flying, wind piercing into her skin and tearing at her hair. Beneath her the landscape changed, the grass blurring into every color the rainbow and rocks and trees and bushes bursting and fading.

Then the tree was gone.

She stopped, the wind whipping her to the ground. Her lungs needed air. She had never felt that need before.

The tree was gone, and Geth was there. An axe and a stump lay behind him.

For the first time she could remember she wondered what she looked like.

Geth seemed dizzy, and he fiddled with a bent paperclip his hand, bending it every which way with a tenderness that bordered on fear. But his eyes, his beautiful clear eyes, were on her.

Something was different.

This was not the same Geth.

But he was watching her.

She stood up, dizzy, giddy and crazy and excited.

He smiled back and ran to her.

The End