"... You know Oz, Reim told me something interesting" Gil said. "He says he saw Break yesterday."

Oz said nothing. Gil continued anyway. "It was night, and Break was on the balcony, acting as if he never died, just left for a while." Something shifted, as if his companion might have responded, but it was so miniscule that Gil was unable to tell if he had imagined it, or there had truly been a momentary shift. "They talked, then he just vanished again. I think Break got tired of being dead. What do you think?"

His companion remained silent. A gust of wind whistled through the trees outside, and the sunset shadows danced on the ceiling.

"And Ada's baby is just like her, except for the eyes. She has her father's eyes, and Leo wants them to name the next one Elliot. I think Vincent wants that too, though he won't say so." Gil paused. "Remember how Ada refused to believe that Vincent was dead and tracked him down, made him apologize for running off without telling her in person, then tracked him down four more times until he gave up and they eloped?"

Silence.

"What do you think? Would Elliot approve? Wait, of course he wouldn't."

Oz continued to stare ahead. Gil felt a pang, remembering how Oz had gone silent.

The Will's body dissolved, and there was light. Sorrow burned in Gil, but he refused to become Raven now. He could do this much for Oz.

Within the light something moved, and he found Alice glowering at him.

"You'd better take care of Oz, Seaweed Head. But don't think he's yours. I'll be back."

She vanished, and from the ribbon of light fell a black plush rabbit, well worn and loved, as if a favorite toy. There was a sense of presence to it, and it wore a red coat, with white diamonds down the sleeves.

"Oz?"

There was no answer.

"It's been ten years, Oz. How much longer are you going to make me wait?" he asked the plushie. "I know you're still there, even if they've given up. Please, give me something!" he begged, feeling tears prickle.

The red eyes continued to stare ahead, unchanging. Vacant.

Gil sighed, turning away as the yawning pit of hopelessness and despair in his soul threatened to swallow him again. He slipped behind Raven's calm, and picked up his hat.

"Gil?" said a voice behind him.

It sounded strained and tired, but Gil still knew that voice. "Oz!"

Heart in his throat, Raven turned. The black rabbit stared silently back.

If Gil were anyone else he would have thought he was finally imagining things. But he had never heard anything when he spoke to Oz before, and there was no one else in the room.

"Oz?"

The beloved, missed voice spoke again, faintly. "Take me to Sabl…"

That made no sense, but if Oz wanted to go to Sablier, then Gil would take him there. Gil would do whatever he needed to help Oz.

The sun was below the horizon when they arrived, and the black mists were rising like the despair that had haunted Gil for nearly twenty years by now, with only a short gleam of sunlight for a few precious months between times. Clutching Oz to him, Raven entered the mists. As he walked, the mist seemed to grow thinner around him, and he thought he saw wisps of it vanishing into Oz's fur. The rabbit seemed to grow heavier in his arms, and the space around him became clearer and better defined. He was certain now that Oz was somehow absorbing the mist, and he worried about his master. Was this what he wanted? Was he doing this by choice or was it simply happening?

And if it wasn't by choice and was causing harm then what could Gil do about it? Nothing! No, he told himself. Oz wanted to be here. Trust Oz. Be raven and calm. Trust Oz.

Eventually Raven sat down on a block of fallen stone. "Well, Oz. We're here. What now?"

Silence. Then, "Stay 'till the mist's gone," Oz whispered, and Raven, no, Gil, he was Gil now, realized with a shock that the words were bypassing his ears to arrive in his mind. "It helps." His voice seemed stronger.

Hours passed.

Gil shifted, restlessly on the cold stone. Oz hadn't said anything since his request to stay until the black fog was gone, and Gil worried. He couldn't become Raven here, not now, not with his worries about Oz at the front of his mind. But he wanted to. The fog was eerie.

Tendrils of it seemed to caress Oz, and it mingled and mixed with his fur until Gil had picked him up just to be sure his master was still there. After that, the rabbit had remained on his lap. "I wish you could tell me why we need to be here, Oz," he said, leaning back a bit. More mist brushed past him, and tingled against his skin. Even if he would be in no danger from the power in it, Baskerville that he was, it still disturbed him. He noticed faint light above, and froze. It was impossible to see the stars when the black fog rose, and yet there they were. And the fog never left until dawn.

"I need the power," a dearly missed voice answered. "I've been empty. Recovering. I used it all. To stay alive. Now I'm awake, I can eat."

"Eat?" Gil did not squawk, and no one can prove he ever did.

"Eat. The power here helps me." Another silence. Then waveringly, "How long has it been? Since this."

"It's been ten years since the abyss was restored and you landed at my feet as a doll."

There was a sense of sighing; a rush of fog, and moonlight began to penetrate the thinning mist. Oz's voice was distinctly stronger when he said "I'm sorry."

Over the next few days he spoke more, then said he felt tired and fell silent for days at a time. The pattern persisted for a month, but every time Oz spoke he spoke for longer periods of time, until one day Gil found him in a different room from where he had been. Oz refused to answer how he had gotten there, and sounded so tired that Gil didn't argue. Two weeks after that he found the rabbit on the table, and could almost see Oz's proper shape surrounding the bunny, swinging his legs and waiting for his servant, sunny grin on his face.

Wait. That wasn't his imagination.

There was a faint, translucent image of Oz as he had been as a human projected around the rabbit.

Gil wept then, seeing a face he had never hoped to see again, even after Oz had begun to speak once more.

His master confessed to having been practicing this when Gil had come home to find him in strange places, but he hadn't wanted his servant to know until he knew if this would work.

One month later, after his master could hold that projection for more than five minutes at a time, and looked less like a ghost with a plush rabbit floating within his shape, and more like a human, Gil told Ada, Leo Sharon, and Reim the news. "Oz is alive!"

A.N. Well I'm back. This is the way I think Pandora Hearts should have ended, since by the rules of the world, Oz the Chain shouldn't have been able to enter the reincarnation cycle. Now reverting back to his powerless bunny self- that, I believe.

The bit about Ada hunting Vincent down is a reference to my other Pandora Hearts fic, She Knows. Read it too, please, and let me know what you think.

Feedback is always welcome.