Nicole's mind stopped forming full thoughts. Smoke began to rise from her form as she failed to process what she was staring at. Beneath her, the already singed grass lit and burned, encasing her in a small circle of flame. Nicole clenched and unclenched her fists, Revenant strength and rage rushing through her veins like hot lava.

"I'm sorry Nicole. I tried." Wynonna sobbed from the ground.

Nicole just stared at Waverly. Or what used to be Waverly, the glazed brown eyes staring at the sky were not Waverly's anymore. Waverly was gone. There would never be a Waverly ever again. Gone. Dead. Nicole had been so wrapped up in her leaving she'd never once pondered what she would do if anything happened to her love. The woman was too kind and sweet for fate to pluck away.

"There wasn't anything I could have done." Wynonna's voice broke into sobs. "I tried. I tried to keep her safe."

"You tried?" Nicole said quietly, feeling herself losing control.

"I'm sorry." Wynonna kept repeating quietly. "I didn't want this for her."

Something inside the officer snapped and Nicole whirled around to face Wynonna. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand had shot out and clasped around Wynonna's throat. She hoisted the heir into the air so high her feet dangled loosely beneath her.

"You tried?" Nicole's voice sounded 3 registers deeper, rasped and distorted. "You were supposed to keep her safe." The redhead's eyes were now only dark burning pits of embers, the skin around them veined with dark burning crevices. "You were supposed to look out for her. You were supposed to be the one at risk not her."

Wynonna gagged, her blocked airway preventing her from responding.

Nicole's grip tightened, the rage filling her felt glorious, her Revenant instincts absolutely purring. Wynonna clawed at her vice gripped hand. The skin on the Earp's neck was beginning to redden as the heat radiating from Nicole burned her.

"HAUGHT." A man's voice cried out a name from the distance but it didn't matter to Nicole. Waverly was dead. The most wonderful person on earth had been snatched, could no one be kept safe in this messed up world?

"NICOLE." Jeremy Doc and Dolls were running towards them, confused by the scene unfolding.
"STOP!" Dolls yelled.

Wynonna's struggles against Nicole were beginning to get weaker as the heir's oxygen levels dropped.

The redhead felt Dolls' firm grip on her shoulder as she tried to shake Wynonna free. Using her other hand, Nicole effortless shoved him backwards into the other two men. Wynonna needed to suffer for what she'd done.

Several gunshots rang out but Nicole barely flinched as the bullets hit her. Dolls and Doc had opened fire on her, hoping that the pain would cause her to falter or drop Wynonna. The men around her were doing anything they could to try and break her grip, but it was futile. Then as suddenly as they'd begun, the bullets stopped.

"What the?" a deep voiced said in awe, Nicole paid it no mind, Wynonna's eyes were going out of focus, any moment now she'd lose consciousness.

Then Nicole felt someone touch her shoulder, this hand different from the men's. It wasn't rough or large but rather small, warm and soft.

"Nicole." The owner of the hand said in a soft voice. "It's okay. Put her down baby."

She knew that voice. Instantly the rage and desires to kill Wynonna were replaced with warm pleasant memories of a brunette cuddle closely to her, whispering her name.

The redhead released her grip, her eyes returning to normal the heat and strength seeping out of her. Wynonna dropped the ground like a ton of brick coughing and crawling away from her.

"Thank you." The voice said calmly and the hand on her shoulder squeezed slightly. "It's okay."

Nicole kept her eyes shut; sure her grief-ridden mind was playing tricks on her. She couldn't bring herself to look at the owner of the hand. It didn't make any sense to her. The wind blew slightly and Nicole's nostrils filled with a soft piny smell. One she'd woken up to and come to love for the past several years. The scent of Waverly Earp.

"Baby look at me." The voice was firm yet gentle. In only a way she could sound.

Nicole raised her head and looked at the hand on her shoulder, then to the face accompanying it. Waverly was standing before her, her previously blood stained shirt a pearl white, her skin clear and smooth, hair pristine. Though Wynonna was still coughing at their feet the brunette held her partner's eyes. Nicole felt herself deflate even further under her gaze. The memory of those warm eyes glazed over with death still fresh in her mind.

"Waverly." Nicole felt her body begin to shake. "You're alive." Then Waverly smiled at her and it was all too much. The taller woman's knees gave way and she dropped to the ground onto them next to Wynonna who was just getting her breath back.

Waverly looked up to the three men still standing before her. All three were expression varying from shock to concern.

"I'm okay." She reassured them with a simple nod before crouching down to the two most important women in her life. "I'm okay." She repeated to the two of them.

Nicole was still completely at a loss as to what was going on but Wynonna nodded. "It worked." The heir said. "It worked. You're still here."

Waverly smiled sadly. "It did. Thank you Wynonna."

To Nicole's surprise tears began to fall from the eldest Earp's eyes once more. She watched as Waverly wrapped her sister into a tight hug. "Thank you." She said again.

Then Nicole's mind clicked. She looked over at Peacemaker who was still strewn on the ground several feet away. "You shot her." She said in more of a statement rather than a question.

The two sisters broke apart and looked to the third woman. Wynonna nodded slowly. Waverly looked down at her front and ran her fingers over where each of O'Grady's bullets had pierced her. "I was dying." She said fingers lingering particularly on her right shoulder where she could still recall the burning numbness the bullet had caused. "But…" She thought for a moment, trying to recall her thoughts in her last moments of life. She looked to her partner. "The thought of leaving you alone." She held Nicole's gaze. "The thought of us not getting to say goodbye." Nicole's brows creased as she held back tears. "I couldn't do it."

She looked to Wynonna. "And with you Wynonna." The heir swallowed, trying to hold back more tears. Waverly raised her shoulders in exasperation. "My time was up. It was going to leave you one way or another." Wynonna sniffed and looked down to the ground. Waverly was right. Fate had chosen to conclude their time together. The sisters were going to need to part from one another.

"But I wanted us to still be able to be together." Waverly said taking Nicole's hand and giving it a squeeze.

There was probably some world where Nicole would be mad. Where she would question or berate Waverly on her decision to give up going to wherever the good souls of humanity went after death instead of condemning herself to a life in hell, whatever that might hold. How could she make such a large sacrifice just so she and Nicole could be together? Nicole never would have chosen an afterlife in hell as Waverly's fate if she could have helped it; never in a million years or universes. But she hadn't been given the choice. Waverly had decided for herself and Wynonna had supported it. So how could Nicole be angry?

Instead Nicole pushed aside any potential anger or disagreement and smiled. She and Waverly were not going to need to say goodbye to one other. Potentially never, not in this lifetime or the next. With that she pulled the smaller woman into a tight hug and buried her face into her shoulder. As they hugged Nicole marked the absence of Waverly's heart beat and the reality of the situation crashed down on her even further.
Waverly was dead, she was a demon, a Revenant, just like Nicole herself. They were not going to need to say goodbye to one another.
She and Waverly were going to be together forever. Pulling away from the hug for a moment Nicole pressed her lips to the brunette's.

"I love you." She said softly as they broke apart. "I love you so much." Waverly smiled, eyes wet with tears. Then she turned to her sister and pulled her into a tight hug as well.
"I'm sorry Wynonna." Her voice muffled as she said it into her sister's shoulder.

"I'm just glad we get this." Wynonna said patting her sister's back. Then the heir's eyes darted over to Nicole. "And I'm glad you were able to call off your hell hound of a girlfriend from strangling me to death.

Nicole smiled embarrassed. "Sorry Wynonna. I just…"

"Nah don't worry about it." Wynonna waved a hand silencing the redhead. "At least now." She gingerly rubbed her bruised and blistered neck. "I know that if anyone in hell tries to do anything to my sister she will be well protected."

Then all three women were laughing. The men looking on it may have looked to be a product of shock or exhaustion but to the Earps and Nicole it was a rejuvenating laugh; an accepting laugh. An agreement and acceptance that this was all going to be okay. That though they were to part ways permanently in the immediate future. That it was okay and that it must have been how fate had laid out their journeys. There would be no more sadness. No more tears.

All that was left to do now, was for them to all say their final goodbyes.