"Is this the end?"

It was a simple enough question for a dying man to ask. Guy of Gisborne lay dying before a man he never thought he would call a friend. Robin Hood.

"For you and me both, my friend." Robin confirmed quietly.

"I'm sorry." Guy told him, gasping for air. "At least you have someone waiting for you. Marian, the love of my life. She was always yours." He could feel himself leaving his body, and going far away.

Guy of Gisborne had his end on the dirty floor of the castle. Killed by his sister and the man he thought he killed months ago. Of all the times he thought of his how his death would be, it was never like this. He also imagined that he would see his whole life flash before his eyes; no such thing happened.

When he opened his eyes, he seemed to be in a forest, and there was a girl smirking as she leaned against a tree.

"The love of your life, huh? Well, I guess I did only know you a few hours, however I did die for you." The girl had long brown hair that fell in ringlets around her, she was in a long white dress that was all too revealing, yet not showing a thing. Big blue eyes looking down at him, where he lay on the forest floor.

"Meg." He whispered.

"You were also wrong, when you said no one was waiting for you." Meg told him, a small smile on her face, as she jumped off a large root of a tree to get a bit closer to him. "I was, I am. So are you going to follow me?" She walked toward him, and held out her hand for him to take.

He stood up, and took it. "Why would you wait for me?"

"You were different." She told him, peering up at him with a curious look on her face. "You mattered."

"Why?"

"Come on, I died for you, can't you just stop asking questions for a moment?" She asked, as she began to lead him down a path. The trees curved around them to make a long arch.

"I'm sorry." He told her.

She laughed. "This is no place to be sorry. All is forgiven, for you are in paradise."

"Me? I thought I would be in hell."

"You have been redeemed." She told him, joy in her face and voice. "You redeemed yourself, and did good for man. You tried to save me. I'm afraid I was your turning point. You may have loved Marian, but you changed for me."

He looked at the much younger girl, not only confused, but a bit surprised as well.

"Everything's more direct here." She told him. "You'll get used to it. There are also no grudges, no pain, no suffering. It's paradise I tell you. Beautiful, with the sun always shining, and the flowers always in bloom. It's always summer here." She looked around the forest with wonder, like she herself couldn't believe she was here. "I'm sure you know there will be another you know joining us today."

"Robin?"

Meg nodded. "Marian's already gone to meet him."

"Marian's here?" He asked, nervous on seeing the girl he had sent here.

"Yes, where else would she be?" Meg laughed. "She was far too good to be anywhere else when she died. She was actually the one that was waiting for me, since I had no one." She didn't say this sadly, just stating the facts. "Your parents are here as well. They were a bit concerned for your soul for a while, but they are happy you made the right choice."

"My parents?" He was still trying to understand exactly where he was.

"You're in heaven, love. Everyone you once knew is here. Everyone you ever loved, or they ever loved is here." She stopped in front of him. "You are in paradise. Believe the words I tell you, for they are true. I couldn't believe it either, when I died, but it is true. No one will harm you, no one hates you. Grudges are gone, as is pain."

"How could I be here?" He asked. "I've murdered or betrayed almost everyone I have ever known, I have caused your death, and countless others. How am I here?"

"You changed." She said simply. "And you didn't cause my death, I pushed you out of the way. What would have happened if I didn't? I would have died anyway, and you wouldn't have been able to do what you had to for the events that happened to happen. Isabella and Vaisey and going to die, and let me tell you that they will not be here with us. Here you are safe, and here it is warm. Nothing will be harmed and nothing can harm. Forgiveness is in the air, and happiness in the sunlight. No one is sad here, and no one will ever be." She took both his large hands and held them in her much smaller ones. "Believe me, Guy, I beg you."

"I don't deserve this." He whispered. "I don't."

"Don't worry about what you deserve, and don't deserve, just let it happen." She replied softly. "It is beautiful here, and you will see it soon. Just follow me, let me show you this place full of splendor." She brought his knuckles up to her lips and kissed them.

So he followed her through the winding path of greenery. He kept looking at her face, trying to see if the happiness in her eyes would ever disappear when he wasn't looking. She didn't look like this when he last saw her. She may have had hope, but not the ecstasy on her face that she had now. Her blue eyes shining in the muted light of the forest, and a small bounce in her step. She was happy, blissfully happy, and maybe there was a chance that he could be too.

When the path ended, and they both looked up at a grand castle, more beautiful than the one that royalty lived it, it was made of a white stone, and had a more inviting feel than a cold one. She showed him around the side of it, greeting people he didn't know as he went.

"Hello, Kate." She said as she passed by a woman tending the roses.

Guy jumped to see someone who looked much like Marian, but perhaps a bit older.

"Is this him?" Kate asked Meg.

Meg nodded. "I don't think he believes he is here just yet."

"Welcome," Kate said, looking up at him. "I'm the wife of Edward, and mother of Marian."

He was surprised by how cordially she greeted him...though he was sure that if they had met before death, she would have tried to kill him.

"Thank you." He found himself saying.

She smiled back at him.

"I'm showing him around." Meg told Kate. "See you later?"

"Of course." Kate nodded.

Meg pulled at his hand to get him walking again, to where she wanted him to go. "I told you. No one hates you here."

"We'll see. I still haven't seen Marian yet."

"She will be back soon." Meg promised him. "She has to get Robin, and who knows how much time they will need getting back. They haven't seen each other in over a year, no doubt they have things to talk of."

Guy nodded, not knowing how to reply.

"We're here." She told him as they arrived at a large meadow behind the castle. It had bright green soft grass covering it, with little yellow, purple, and white flowers, a small stream going through the center of the field. A gentle breeze ran through the grass bending the weaker limbs of the trees that lined the meadow.

Meg's hand leaves Guy's as she walks forward, the breeze blowing her hair back, and she lifted her arms up, her long, large sleeves making it look like she had wings. "Isn't it wonderful? I always come here to think." She turned towards him, pulling her hair over her right shoulder. "How did you die?"

He looked at her, surprised. "You don't know?"

"We don't get to know. I was only told that you became good, and that you were coming." She told him.

"Vaisey and my sister stabbed me." He told her. "She killed Robin too, with the poison I gave her."

Meg frowned. "Why did you give her poison?"

"To kill herself, she was going to be killed, and if she took it all it would have been quick."

"I'm sorry." Meg told him. "But being stabbed is the worst, isn't it? I think I would have preferred the beheading...of course then my corpse wouldn't be as pretty."

"I wish I could have saved you."

"Then where would I have gone? I had no protection, my father tossed me out. I would have been alone. It was better that I had died." She told him, looking down at her hands.

"You could have stayed with me."

"Would you have wanted me? A problematic eighteen year old. I would have killed us both." She smiled. "It wasn't meant to happen. I had to die, and so did you. What's done is done, we cannot go back." She turned back around to face the meadow. "What's left is to go forward. We don't have to want for anything here. Everything's taken care of. We all work in the gardens and with the animals, and it's perfect."

"Then why are you wearing white?"

"Why are you?" She replied, looking over her shoulder.

He looked down, he was wearing a loose white shirt, and light brown pants.

"It's what we wear here." She told him simply, as she began to walk forward.

He followed her. "So where's God?"

"God?" She paused. "He's more of a feeling than the physical God. We get feelings and thoughts from him, none of us have seen him."

"Then how do you know this isn't hell?"

She turned around to him. "Would you call this hell?" She pointed at the sun above them. "Would you call that hell? Would you call the flowers hell? Would you call this feeling hell?" She extended her arms around her and began to spin. "Would you call this feeling hell? This warmth, this endless energy?"

"No," he admitted quietly.

She stopped spinning as she smiled at him. "Then you're not in hell."

He looked at the girl in front of him. The sunlight bringing out the blonde highlights in her hair. "I should be."

Her face fell. "No, you shouldn't. Don't say that, Guy."

"I killed people." He told her. "Don't you understand that?"

"Understand it? I watched it!" She told him harshly. "I'm not an innocent either. I've seen what you did, what you've done, and in that dungeon I saw a different man. You've changed, even if you do not I see, I do."

He was taken aback, and just looked at her, not knowing how to respond or what to say, after a moment she began speaking again.

"You are human." She told him, her voice softening as she stepped toward him and took his hand again. "We all make mistakes, and we all at least one thing bad in our lives. What you learn in death is to forget of the bad, focus on the good. Don't punish yourself for your sins, that life was a punishment enough." He brought his hand to her chest, feeling her heart beat. "We are dead, but we are more alive than ever. Don't you feel it?" She tapped her fingers against his wrist in time with her heart, before moving his hand to his chest. "We died, but we live. We don't age here, nor have I seen someone die. This is our second chance at life. Don't say you don't deserve it, and don't fight it. It is what it is, and just enjoy."

"I-"

"Meg?" Asked a familiar voice that made Guy turn around in shock.

Marian stood before him, looking much like she did her final day in the Holy Land. No dirt or sand on her clothes though, and she was tethered by her hand to Robin, who stood next to her.

"Hello Guy." Marian smiled sadly. "I see you arrived around the same time as Robin."

"The poison didn't take too long." Robin told Guy. "Two hours if not less after you died."

"Well we all are dead." Meg supplied.

"I'm sorry." Guy told Marian. "I wish I didn't kill you."

"It had to be done." Marian told him. "Otherwise nothing would have gone as it has, and what needed to be done wouldn't have been done. I forgive you." She said this so sincerely, there was no way she didn't mean it.

It was like a weight had been lifted off his chest, and he could breathe again.

"I told you all is forgiven here." Meg reminded him.

"I only came here to say that." Marian smiled. "Now, I am going to spend my forever with my husband."

"Good to see you made it." Robin added to Guy, before he and Marian walked back towards the white castle.

"So what do I do with my forever?" Guy asked, turning to Meg.

"You could spend it with me." She told him, biting her lip nervously. "If you like."

"I would like that."