Jace Beleren looked at the now demolished city of Ravnica. The place he had come to call his home had fallen to utter ruin, destroyed by a war he tried and failed desperately to stop. He tried again and again to convince himself- and had been doing so since the beginning- that the events that had transpired had been out of his control, but he still felt more than a twinge of guilt for the whole ordeal. The guilds had originally turned to him when the dragon, Nicol Bolas, had descended upon their plane, and he'd been incapable of coming up with a decision. He'd called for help, as had been done before concerning the beast, but he proved a lot more formidable than before. Now Ravnica was a plane divided, and thousands upon thousands had lost their lives; all because he'd made the wrong choices in the beginning, when people had turned to him for help.

"Jace..." A worried voice called his name. Jace ignored her at first, choosing instead to brood. He knew what she was going to say- she's suggested it over and over, and each time he had refused. "Jace!"

"What, Liliana?" He finally groaned in exhaustion as he turned to the necromancer standing at his back. She'd been one of the first to answer the call (she had her own reasons to oppose Bolas, or at least that's what she had said) and had since been by his side. Jace wished there was an appropriate time for him to thank her- a break in the constant battle where he could relax and make his gratitude towards her known. Without her, the constant fighting and crippling losses would have driven him mad. But that peace had yet to come.

"Jace, we can't stay here!" She began to protest. Jace immediately turned his back on her before she could finish, but she went on talking, determined to finish. "This plane is doomed, you know that! There's no point in staying here. Bolas and his forces have yet to fall, even after everything you, the guilds and everyone else has thrown at him. Can't you see, you've given your all and it hasn't even broken his stride! There's no saving Ravnica, Jace!"

"No one is keeping you here, Liliana. If you think we're fighting a lost cause, then you're free to go." Jace darkly snapped, looking over his shoulder and narrowing his eyes. "I refuse to give up on Ravnica, not after all I've done. I have a purpose here!"

"And look what good you're doing now! The living guildpact: unable to do anything but gaze over a destroyed city and watch as countless die." Liliana snarled. "The guilds long since turned their backs on you, Jace! Not even the planeswalkers you brought here are bothering to look to you! I think they've all made it quite clear that they don't need you anymore, so why do you continue to stay!?"

"Someone like you wouldn't understand!" Jace shouted, his cloak billowing out behind him as he whirled around to meet her furious gaze. Her look of insulted surprise should have been a sign for him to stop- to apologize and leave the conversation to rot- but sleeplessness paired with helplessness and stress had long since driven Jace to become less of an empathetic man than he once had been. "Someone like you, who refuses to find value in anything or anyone, would never understand!"

Liliana staggered backward as if Jace's words had actually been a physical blow. She glared back at him, eyes full of anger and emotion she was holding back.

"You think I don't understand? Do you really think I'm that heartless?" She hissed furiously. "Why do you think I came here, Jace!? I was on some other plane, far away from this madness, but the second I heard your voice I came here... you're the one who doesn't understand! You're so concerned about everything- the bigger picture- you never bother to look at what's right in front of your face!"

The two of them stared back at one another, nothing but the sounds of the fighting happening all around them to fill the air. Neither could dredge up a single word to say to the other, not having even enough energy to continue their argument.

"You're ability to leave this place is still on the table, Liliana. No one is forcing you to stay here." Jace finally spoke, beginning to turn away from her. "Don't let your feelings for me lead you to stay here and potentially get yourself hurt. I don't want another loss of something I care for weighing me down."

"You can't tell me what to do, Jace!" Liliana began to shout before a loud, powerful rumble cut her off. The ground beneath them shook, enough to nearly knock both of them off their feet. The already destroyed city crumbled all the more to a chorus of screams both human and metal. Jace attempted to right himself, trying to reach for something to hold onto as he tried to find the source of the attack that had no doubt been launched. But as he did, he suddenly felt something push him from behind, forcing him forward. He tripped and stumbled only a few times before completely tumbling to the ground.

"Shit!" He gasped as he quickly wrestled himself into an upright position and pulled back his hood as he quickly spun around to see what exactly had pushed him. And, as he did, his heart sank as the world itself seemed to stop. Every noise- every rumble, every scream, every yell- seemed miles away as he stood frozen, hoping- praying- he was seeing things. Any second now, he'd wake up, and all of this would be a horrible nightmare.

But he didn't. The nightmare proved itself to be real, no matter how much he wished. The sight of Liliana- half her body under a mountain of fallen rubble- remained ever-present and crystal clear before his eyes.

"L... Liliana..." He gasped, trying to force himself to move. But his body wouldn't obey- not his legs, or his arms or his eyes that continued to stare only forward. "Liliana!"

"J..." He heard her moan before coughing weakly. She was still alive- but not for long. The gods had granted him one last chance to speak to her- although it was just the chance to tell her goodbye.

"Liliana!" He repeated her name as he finally found the strength to move again. He dropped to her side, hands hovering over her. A crimson pool slowly oozed out from under the rubble, meeting Jace's knees. "Liliana... why?"

"How... completely stupid..." She mumbled, slowly lifting her head, smiling like nothing was wrong despite the thick flow of blood flowing from her lips. "To think... after everything I've done... this is how I die."

"Shh! Please, Liliana, don't speak! You'll only hurt yourself!" Jace urged, his words wavering and shaking as he rested one of his hands on top of hers.

"It's okay... Jace... I don't feel anything. It... doesn't hurt." Liliana assured him. But Jace knew very well she wasn't in any pain- he'd made damn sure she wouldn't feel a single pin-prick as he reached into her mind and stopping her slowing mind from causing her to sense any pain at all. He held her mind desperately, feeling her slowly begin to slip. Thoughts, memories, and senses began to slip through his grip like sand.

"Liliana... please... don't leave me!" He cried, gripping her hand tighter. "I need you here, please!"

"Jace... There's... something I need... to tell you..." She whispered. Her skin grew pale, and the light began to vanish from her eyes.

"Lili..."

"Jace... I... I lo..." Before she could finish, Jace felt as her mind came to a halt, everything of value and importance completely bled dry from her thoughts. He stared down at her, eyes filled with tears as pained grunts and half-words escaping him. This... this couldn't be happening!

"No!" Jace shouted, sobbing desperately as he tightened his grip on her silent, empty mind and tried with all his might to try and draw something out of the darkness and hold it there. But, search as he might, there was nothing. No comforting thought, no memory of the time they'd spent together- nothing. But still he tried, exhausting himself as sweat began to drip from his brow as he tried to drag back the mind of what was now nothing but a corpse- an inanimate object. "You can't die! You can't! Liliana!"

Desperately he grasped her face and lifted it, but only found empty eyes staring back at him, blood dying from her lips down her chin and neck in vivid red. With quivering, shaking hands he wiped the blood from her lips.

"Please... you can't..." He sobbed, brushing his blood-dyed fingers along the soft skin of her face, leaving crimson trails. "I... I... I love you..."

In those moments, the living guildpact finally gave in to madness- his sanity leaving with the life of the person he cherished most. Nothing else mattered- no guild, or fellow planeswalker- not even the plane itself. The only thing that mattered was gone, and everything else could burn for all he cared.

Jace gasped sharply, feeling beads of sweat fly off his face as he sat up- only to run into something and immediately throw himself back in the opposite direction.

"Fuck!" A voice cursed as Jace nursed his head, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Liliana!" He gasped, opened his eyes, coming to find her sitting beside him, rubbing her own head and gritting her teeth in agony. Jace felt his entire being relax with relief as his gaze settled on her. Other than a possible injury from him accidentally headbutting her, she was fine. She was sitting beside him, breathing. Alive. Sitting up again he reached out, taking her hand. "Thank gods!"

"W-What?" She looked back at him in confusion, but without removing her hand. Jace stammered, fumbling over his words as he tried to find reason for his relief.

"I... Sorry, I guess I... had a nightmare." He shook his head as he looked around where they were. It was hard to tell exactly, with the room bathed in darkness only broken by a pale ray of moonlight drifting in through a nearby window, but it looked like the school infirmary. A teakettle whistling somewhere in the darkness only proved those assumptions.

"A nightmare?" Liliana questioned as she left his bedside, head still cradled in her hand as she went to go quell the whistling. "What of?"

Jace opened his mouth to speak, but immediately drew back. The visions of the nightmare refused to fade or fizzle away. They were just as clear as if he'd actually experienced them, and it terrified him. He remembered especially clearly, the sensation of Liliana's mind slowly going out, like a flame blown out by the wind. He looked up at her, gazing at her through the darkness as she shuffled around, looking for cups, confirming she was still alive.

"...I... I couldn't tell... but... in it you..." He paused, his hesitation getting her attention as she gave up her search to look at him.

"I what?"

"You... died."

"Ah..." She responded surprisingly calmly as she went back to searching. Jace looked back at her in disbelief.

"That's all? You don't find it odd?"

"Not at all. Because it happened." Liliana spoke plainly, quietly cheering to herself victoriously as she finally came across cups hidden within one of the cupboards. "What you saw wasn't a nightmare. It was probably a memory. That sort of thing tends to happen when you're told about your... past."

"So... what I saw..." Jace muttered, the memory of what had happened earlier that night slowly coming back to him out of the haze. The things Sorin had told him, the things he'd apparently done when he was last alive, the doubt and the acceptance that followed all came flooding back, giving way to a headache not caused from having knocked heads with Liliana. "...It actually happened?"

"Unfortunately. You'll remember more and more now that you've been told." Liliana nodded as she returned, handing him first a mug of what Jace assumed was tea and then a bottle of what he came to find were his painkillers. "I have yet to remember my death. Maybe it's because that memory belongs to you."

"Wait, wait, hold on a second!" Jace interjected as he took the tea and medicine. "You talk like you already knew about all of this!"

"Not all of it. I've just known for a really long time that there was another Liliana Vess who lived and died before me. I didn't know about why, or what your involvement in it was... And despite how important I was to the Jace Beleren before you, I haven't found a single memory with him in them. So I've been in the dark about some things..."

"Well, you're certainly taking it pretty well."

"Opposed to the guy who fainted."

"Whatever, that doesn't change the fact you're really calm. You were calm the entire time back at the dean's office." Jace continued. "...Why is that?"

"... Jace... I originally came to the dance tonight to tell you something. Naturally I didn't get to tell you, but now I think it's fitting I share. I don't think it's very fitting we keep any more secrets from one another." She paused, taking a seat back on the bed and looked down at her own drink.

"How old do you think I am, Jace?"

"Excuse me?"

"Just answer the damn question." She groaned, head rolling backward in frustration as she spoke.

"Fine, fine!" Jace sighed, taking a long look at her. "I mean, you look about my age... you hardly look more than a year or two older, in anything." Liliana sighed heavily, shaking her head.

"The news Sorin shared doesn't surprise me because, when you've been around for as long as I have, a lot of things just... stop surprising you." She spoke, a bitter smile on her face. "I've been around for well over a couple centuries, Jace. I've seen this world age and change without me while my aging process slowed until I remained the exact same. I've been this way for longer than a regular human should be alive."

"Wh-!" Jace exclaimed, mouth hanging open as he looked for any telling signs of aging on Liliana's face. Part of him wanted to call her out on it and call her a liar. But she sounded and looked so serious. After that night, he figured, he could believe just about anything, no matter how strange. "...H-how!?"

"You can thank the former Liliana for that." Liliana chuckled in defeat. "I was born a long, long time ago to a family who loved me... that is, until they came to find I was a girl possessed. Somehow, my body and soul were the property of two very powerful demons, and once they figured that out, they cast me out and I was forced to live my life on my own. I lived in fear of myself and the powers I'd been cursed with and so did everyone else. Discrimination against magic-folk had begun to take hold of society at the time, so I could find nowhere to go. No one would take in a girl who had the power to raise the dead- who was essentially possessed by demons even the most powerful, brave man would fear.

"I wound up figuring out my reason for being cursed from a traveling fortune teller when I was still a young girl. From what they were able to tell me, an ancestor of mine had given her soul up for youth and power, and died before she could fully pay her debt. I had no idea why the demons had chosen me to shoulder that debt, but at least I had my answer. It was then I began to notice I'd begun to age slower than everyone else. What the woman who had come before me wished for- youth and power- were also mine. I won't lie, I took advantage of both things to get by. I've done a lot of things I'm ashamed about even today to survive."

"So... how did you wind up here?" Jace asked. He'd completely forgotten about the meds Liliana had handed him and the headache they had been for.

"Well, I've been through here before, when this school was still new. I was intrigued by the fact that the city of Ravnica was a place made up of mostly magic-folk and was home to one of the first schools that catered specifically to mages and magical creatures. It was there I met Emmara who, when we met, was being harassed by a bunch of boys who were trying to woo her. After I did away with them, I became her body guard and eventually her friend even though I wasn't enrolled. I pretty much remained here until it came for Emmara to graduate, and in that time she figured out about my condition and it only brought us closer together. She found the fact I didn't age and why to be both sad and fascinating and stuck around so she could have a human friend who hardly aged and so that I could have someone who understood who I could talk to.

"That being said, she chose not to enroll in the school's college program and instead chose to go to a regular college to study nursing. I couldn't just follow her from place to place, so we went our separate ways. I'd drop by every once in a while, mostly to tell her where I'd be so she could send me letters. We've been doing so until recently, when a letter came in the mail what wasn't from Emmara. It was from the academy, extending an offering for me to enroll. It seemed really hoaxy, but in the end it turned out to be true. My first year I befriended both Chandra and Gideon and in the same year I lost them. And that pretty much brings me to where I am today. Now I see I was probably brought here to fulfill Sorin's purposes of opening the maze. It makes a lot of sense, looking at it that way."

"But... how did you figure out there was another Liliana Vess?" Jace inquired. And, for once, Liliana didn't immediately respond. She hesitated, looking nervous and almost frightened, biting her lip. "...Liliana?"

"I just... figured it out for myself, that's all. If you look hard enough, you'll eventually find things out, right?"

"You're not... lying, are you?"

"Hey, if you think I'm lying, why not just read my mind?" Liliana suddenly snapped, going from furious to calm almost within seconds as she drew back. "Sorry... I just... I'm telling the truth, honest."

"I trust you, Liliana." Jace responded, giving her a reassuring smile as he reached out and took her hand.

"Well, look at you, being all bold just because we were lovers in a past life." Liliana snorted, not moving her hand from his grip. "Do you really think it's wise to repeat the things they did?"

"S-Sorry..." Jace said, beginning to pull away but stopping himself. "I do... love you, though." He could feel his cheeks heat up and he was sure, even in the darkness, Liliana could probably see him blushing.

"You've made that point pretty clear." Liliana chuckled, reaching out and resting her own hand on top of his. "And... I-"

"Yeah?" Jace leaned forward eagerly.

"Gods, down boy." Liliana groaned, immediately pressing her open hand against his face and pushing him right back. "What I was going to say was I need to think about this a little. It's... a little hard to digest."

"Wait, let me get this straight." Jace muttered, gently taking her by the wrist and removing her hand from his face so he could speak clearly. "So figuring out all this stuff about past lives and reincarnation and there being a maze beneath the school- that's okay and you can accept that. But the fact that I love you requires time for you to digest it?"

"The feelings of other people are a lot more complicated that even the grandest of schemes, Jace." Liliana sighed, sounding tired. "I'm not rejecting you, so calm down before you say something you'll regret. I... just need time is all."

Jace looked back at her, silence falling between them. His gaze slowly traveled down to the cup of tea he was holding before he sighed in defeat. It wasn't a rejection, but it still made him awfully nervous all the same. Liliana didn't really strike him as the type of person who would digest and think upon the feelings of other people. Still, it was best not to force a straight answer out of her.

"Alright..." He nodded, trying to give her his best, convincing smile. "You take all the time you need."

"... But... does everything I said not bother you at all?" Liliana asked, looking back at him nervously. "You know, the thing about the demons or the fact I'm much, much older than you."

"Those things don't change who you are, though." Jace told her with a chuckle. "All those things make up the girl I fell in love with. And if it weighs things in my favor, I'll accept everything about you- the good and the bad."

"Gods..." Liliana shook her head, smirking. "That kind of thinking is going to get you hurt one day."

"Well that remains to be seen." Jace cocked an eyebrow playfully.

"Just drink your damn tea, Jace."