He turned it over in his mind like a rolling wave.
He rushed towards his trembling bride to be. She looked at him, pained and scared. And she was gone.
The pain of being pulled completely apart and put back together began to subside. It was the worst halfway in between, when all the cells and nerves of her body were reassembling in their proper place.
Halfway in his arms, and halfway on the ground, reforming in the future. As the pain subsided, Ashi let out an animalistic wail.
Her body was finished moving from one plane to another.
The pain was far from over.
She wouldn't see him again for decades.
For a moment he felt at ease. The red beetle skittering on his hand was the kindest reminder of her he'd had in the year since...
When it flew away, drifting clumsily in the air, he wondered not for the first time how something so sweet had existed in the harsh future.
The pain subsided, as she got her bearings, the rubble around her a far cry from the pink cherry blossoms that had drifted around. The soot in the air, the moaning of wounded.
She wailed again in anguish. Still not fully understanding, but all the same distressed. Her cries for Jack were muffled by the marching troops and crumbling battlefield.
Her sorrow was burned away by anger. She struck the ground with her fists, and glared up to a non-existent portal to the past.
"No." She seethed, her eyes narrowing. Her body trembled, but her eyes were locked upwards, sky bound. "No!"
Cross legged on a bamboo floor, hands resting on his knees. Eyes closed neutrally, neither serene nor creased. He meditated to the sound of wedding gongs. Played repeatedly for the anniversary of his near-wife's dissolution from existence.
It wasn't easy, but he was dutiful and he never shirked. Never.