Disclaimer: I don't own anything! The words in italics are from Les Miserables and I completely recommend Lea Salonga's voice singing if you want to hear this song. It's called The Dream I Dreamed.
Author's Note:
He slept a summer by my side.
He filled my days with endless wonder,
He took my childhood in his stride,
But he was gone when autumn came.
And still I dream he'll come to me
And we will live the years together...
She was able to speak, for a while. She would manage to rip free from the Cruxis Crystal's grasp for a minute or two and speak and see and the first time she did, Yuan had stared at her with a terrible, heartbreaking expression because the man sitting there was not the man she knew, wasn't the one she'd danced with under the stars, wasn't the one she'd lay beside in their marriage bed and wasn't the one who'd held her hand as she died.
This man was infinitely older in some non-physical way and his eyes are reddened at the edges, like he'd been crying. "Martel?"
He could see her too. Small blessings. She didn't know what to say, didn't know what she possibly could say for this because she was dead, she knew that. Or she was supposed to be. "…You're not hallucinating, if that's what you're wondering."
Yuan's jaw tightened for a moment. "You're dead." The word trembled in the air, even if Yuan's voice didn't. It was some kind of confirmation, something to reaffirm reality and Martel was glad she couldn't flinch anymore.
"I know. I-I miss you. And everyone, really."
His eyes dropped and she saw the ring still on his finger (Until death do us part…). "…I miss you too. Every day. And you know Kratos, he won't say anything, but he misses you too. I can tell." And no words needed to be said for Mithos' grief.
The last time she could make herself appear before him, make herself get free of the Cruxis Crystal, Yuan was there and perhaps he could tell how very tired she was. Or perhaps it was his own weariness reflected on his face.
"I won't be able to do this again," she warned him. (She wishes she could have seen Kratos again, but Yuan never brings him because he's a bit selfish and a bit ashamed which hurts a little because Kratos-and-Yuan are more than a little broken and she doesn't know why, will never know why because she's fading and soon she'll be nothing but the Crystal)
The Yuan she remembered would have snapped at her to stop thinking like that, would have told her to stop being ridiculous. But this Yuan was not the one she remembered and he was no optimist.
But there was a glimmer of him beneath the layers of Time and sorrow and the twist of his lips that Martel supposed was a smile was crookedly familiar. "Best we make good use of the time we have then."
