"I can't do this without you."

"I never wanted to be part of your stupid boy's club anyway," her breath quickened as her hand reached up to touch his cheek, "I guess it's true. The greatest love stories always end in tragedy."

And with that, her hand fell and her body went slack in his arms. "No, Nya...please."

•••

"-ake up, Jay." Jay jolted awake, his chest heaving with sobs as tears rolled down his cheeks as hands held him still, "hey, hey, just me. Shhhh..."

Jay managed to squint in the dark, despite the fact that a sob tore through his throat every few seconds. But she was there, her hair longer now and tied back, but here.

"Y-You're okay." He managed to speak, sitting up just enough to hug her, then the circumstances hit him, and why he hadn't been able to see that well; they were underwater, on their way to figure out what was causing her powers to go haywire.

"Are you?" She asked softly as he wiped the tears from his face, still hiccuping occasionally, "that sounded like a rough one. Were you?..."

He knew she wanted to say "on Misfortune's Keep" but couldn't bring herself to, something that neither of them had brought up since after they found each other's scars from the events of what happened.

"No, I was...you..."

"Oh," she muttered, her hands subconsciously going to the scar from the venom on her chest before she turned back to him, her smile now obviously forced, "we're okay this time. We have Lloyd, Zane and PIXAL with us this time. No one's gonna hurt us."

"And your mom?" Jay suggested, seeing her face go from the fake smile to genuine annoyance.

"Yeah, her too."

•••

Jay couldn't hold back his tears as he dropped the clump of sand he was holding while staring out at the endless ocean just ahead of him. Thoughts of 'i wish you had taken my hand' swirling in his head. How she said no one was going to hurt them this time because they had their friends this time around.

'She hates being wrong. This is the worst thing to be wrong about.'

He hadn't realized he had been looking at his worst scar from his time on Misfortune's Keep until a hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his spiralling grief. He didn't know who's hand it was, but it could have been a random stranger for all he knew.

"S-she said no one would hurt us. T-that we'd be okay t-this time." He spoke, his crying causing him to stutter. "She hates, hated, being wrong."

"I know she did." Cole's voice was so soft he hardly recognized it, "I know."