I'm not dead…just floating…

There's a voice…calling to me…

Dark binds tighten around my wrists and ankles, digging into my skin. It should hurt…but I feel nothing. My eyes open, the thick blackness closing in like a beast. Someone's saying a name. Is it my name? I can't remember. I can't remember anything. Something flickers. Is it light?

I strain against my binds, trying to glimpse it better. It is light. A blue light… like a flame lighting up the dark. It's calling to me…it's calling my name. I struggle against my chains, desperately trying to reach it.

"I'm not going to let you go," growls the darkness.

"No!" I cry, tugging at the horrible shackles.

"Yuri, wake up!" the light shouts.

It comes like a flood. The wolf, the bird, the love, the betrayal, the flames, the death, the escape, the cave, the children, and the blackness. I remember everything, who I am, what I've done, and the one thing keeping me barely out of death's clutches all this time.

I yank against my binds and they break like paper. I stand up and begin to run, as fast as I can, to the blue light, getting brighter by the second. I reach out… I'm almost there…

"I won't let you go!" shrieks Death, snatching at my ankles, "why do you even want to go back to him?" it hisses. "He's the reason you're dead, he never loved you!"

I falter, stopping in my tracks as the darkness crawls up my bare legs. Was this true? It sounded right… something about it had a ring of truth to it…

"YURI WAKE UP!" the flame yells.

It's like looking into the sun and then I realize…there's nothing I can do but run to him, no matter what, and find myself in his arms. I throw myself into the burning fire, screaming his name, the light filling my eyes.

"I'm sorry…" said a tall man in a white coat, examining the flatlining heart rate monitor.

Hot tears ran down Satan's face, clutching the woman's hand to his face. Another man, dressed all in black, looks away trying to hide his sadness. Two teenagers, who had never even met the woman looked like all the happiness ever had been sucked out of them. For a minute, everything was silent, watching the lifeless form. Then, a very small very quiet beep echoed through the noiseless room. Everyone looked around, wondering where it was.

Whatever it was beeped again, louder this time. Satan looked up, hardly daring to believe it. His blue eyes rested on the heart rate monitor. It beeped again, showing a spike in the flatline.

"Stay with us, Yuri," he begged, "I love you. I need you. Don't leave me now."

The woman on the bed stirred ever so slightly, her hand twitching. The man in black watched her with rapt attention, praying she would pull through.

"Mmm…" Yuri groaned, her teal eyes opening slightly.

"You're alive…" whispered Satan, cupping her face in his hands. "I don't believe it…you're alive."

"Satan," she breathed, smiling.

He hugged her gently, tears still in his eyes. "I love you, Yuri."

"I love you too," she answered, wrapping her shaking arms around his neck.

Shiro stared down at the happy couple, a single tear running down his face. I guess it just isn't in the cards for us, he thought sadly. But in that moment, his unrequited love didn't really matter. Yuri was alive, and that was all that really counted.

"Hi, Mom," said Rin shyly, waving to her.

"So these are my sons," she smiled, looking up at Rin and Yukio, "to think that the last time we saw each other you were adorable little babies,"

For the first time in forever, their family was one. Laughter filled the hospital room, destroying the thick scent of death that had hung over the room for the last sixteen years. The darkness that had once controlled all their hearts fled to the shadows, driven away by the light. The forces of Assiah and Gehenna were in balance. For now.