A/N: Stop throwing tomatoes at me! *dodging them* I know I killed Abel, but get over it!

*sigh* Never mind. Just read, will ya?

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Chapter Nine: Death of a Paladin

"Where am I?" asked Abel.

"You're right here," answered the Tiki look-alike. She didn't look exactly like Tiki, but her clothes and headdress were the same, and her hair was longer.

"Well, then, who are you?" was Abel's next question.

"… I am Nagi."

"Nagi, what did you mean 'we're right here'? Where is 'here'?"

"Here is here. There is no other name for it. You're from there. You came here. Here is where you are…" She pointed to the ground beneath Abel's feet. "… right over there."

Abel rubbed the back of his head. This was proving confusing.

"Am I dead?" he asked.

"Your kind call it death. We call it eternal slumber."

"What's the difference?"

Nagi adjusted her pink full-body shirt. "Slumbers can be prematurely terminated."

Abel focused on his surroundings, but that was difficult, considering it kept changing. The only constants, it appeared, were him and Nagi.

"Space here seems to be—"

"Distorted? Yes. So is time. You might be here three seconds or three hundred million years. Who knows?" said Nagi with a shrug. "I've been here, by my best guess, four trillion millennia. Hard to tell in here, though, may have only been an hour or so. Get it?"

"I think so." Abel stood where he was, bored, which was strange considering he was in a place he'd never been to, with only a divine dragon who'd been there for God knows how long for company. He felt like he was already accustomed to the place. So time really was distorted. "So what do we do for however long we're here?"

Nagi approached Abel. She didn't seem to have any rigid concept of personal space. Perhaps that's how all divine dragons lived, without such inhibitions. Tiki certainly abdicated her personal space almost every chance she got. "It's just us, so let's keep one another company. I can feel you'll be leaving here before I do, and you're my first person to talk to since I can remember."

"Well okay, I suppose so. Be nice if we could sit and talk, but—"

Suddenly, two ornate chairs appeared seemingly from nowhere. Abel stared at them, shocked and confused.

"What's with the…?" he asked.

"Simple. This environment, while ever-changing and unpredictable, is highly suggestible. You mentioned sitting, right? Well, the environment, following a line of probability towards inhabitant suggestion, created two chairs. If you think about sleep, a bed will—"

A bed for two appeared.

"—appear," finished Nagi.

"I get it. So if I think about fruit, then—"

Various fruits such as apples, grapefruit, and pears appeared. Though not on any table or plate, the dimension's strange gravity field held them in place.

"Now you're getting it," commended Nagi. She took an apple and began to eat it. Abel chose a pear.

As he chewed the pear, a horrible realization struck Abel.

"Oh my god, if my soul is here, then what of my body??" he frantically asked.

Nagi considered how best to explain it. "When you went through your transformation, something happened. Feel where your lower ribs would be."

Abel felt his lower ribs, or would have, but they weren't there anymore. He had a thin, almost translucent membrane of skin where they used to be. He recognized it as a dragon's Achilles heel, a soft underbelly.

Nagi continued. "The bones in your wings have to come from somewhere. Most of them shifted around the outside of your body, but one of them shifted the wrong way. It shifted through the middle of your body and ruptured your heart. You died pretty fast, and, well, here you are."

Abel thought of how horrified Tiki would be when she learned of his death. He felt awful for putting her through that. He felt guilty for it, even though it wasn't his fault.

He reached out with his heart, and, with a tear in his eye, said, "Tiki… I'm sorry."

"Dead? What do you mean dead?" asked Tiki.

Minerva had figured out what happened the moment Abel's body betrayed him. She'd seen his appearance at that moment and come to that conclusion.

"He means Abel's life has stopped, and won't be returning. Something went wrong during the transformation," she explained.

Tiki laid her hand on Abel's bloody wing.

"Abe-ame… please… you can't go… you can't… I've never met anyone like you, and I never will again… you're the most important person I know… Every moment with you was a happy one. I don't want them to end. Please, don't be dead!!" She was crying, her tears sliding down her cheeks and falling onto Abel's. Her emotions possessed her, and she leaned down and kissed Abel's lifeless lips. Marth, Elice, and Minerva watched, all fully understanding her pain. They had all lost a loved one, and knew how emotional one gets.

As Tiki kissed Abel, she heard a voice. Not in her ears, or even in her head. It seemed to originate from her heart.

It said: Tiki… I'm sorry.

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A/N: Dun dun duuunnnnn! Yep. She heard him from beyond the dead!

You didn't think I'd leave him dead, did you? Come on, this story might yet have a happy ending!

Anyways, sorry if I scared you all with Abe-y's death. But that's fiction for you. I had to throw in suspense somewhere, and that was the perfect time.

FYI: I've finish the written portion of this story. It has eleven chapters total plus an epilogue. So we're three-fourths of the way done here!

Review, all you lovely people!