Thanks to CaptainlonestarUSA and meichan-24 for reviewing. I get the feeling that there's something else i should say but i can't think of it.

Chapter 2: Everybody dies alone; and then...

I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh or relief, because there will be so much to look forward to. – Donnie Darko

Donnie flailed his limbs at the water around him in an attempt to propel himself to a surface that presumably lied somewhere above him. He soon found he was not ascending however; his attempts to propel himself weren't being rewarded with even a single milometer.

He kept his mouth shut tightly, clinging to what oxygen he had left and resisting the urge to try for more, the result of which would be water pouring down in throat and into his lungs. Then again, why not? He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe.

He didn't need to breathe.

That was the first thing Donnie realised when his mouth, against his will, opened. Water poured in, but he felt nothing. There wasn't any discomfort in his lungs; there was only confusion and fear.

Survival instincts began to take a back seat to questions. The first being 'where was he'. All he could see around him was water, and a bright white light that seemed to be coming from somewhere above him. Donnie couldn't make out exactly where the light was coming from.

It looked familiar.

Memory began to break through Donnie's confusion. He remembered Gretchen, her neck broken in half by a speeding car that seemed to envelop her. He remembered the engine that had fallen through his roof as he laughed inanely beside it. He remembered the wooden spike that had punched its way through his chest.

Almost instinctively, Donnie's eyes and hands flew to his chest, inspecting it for damage. There was nothing there, not even skin. The area around the wound seemed to have vanished completely. Donnie's shirt had twisted over the exposed innards and back out again, as if it had taken up the role that his skin once did.

"I'm dead." The words didn't sound like they had come from him, but it was clearly his voice, and it had been what he was thinking.

Shock filled him at this discovery. In one instant, his own hand had snatched his existence from him. He had wanted to die, he remembered that. After Frank had killed Gretchen, all he could think of was something she'd told him, about going back in time and changing all the bad things in your life to good. He knew that if he brought the engine back with him, the world would be safe, Gretchen would be OK, and he would be dead. No one would get hurt because of him again. Ever.

He didn't remember dying. For a long moment, all he could focus on was the pain of impalement via a large wooden spike. It seemed like it would never end, then the next moment, he found himself here. Struggling against the water.

"I've been waiting for you."

Donnie jumped at the sound of the voice. A corner of his brain had been expecting this, but fresh shock still came to him, as well as anger. He hadn't forgotten about what Frank had done.

"Aren't you going to say hello?"

Donnie almost snarled at the watery emptiness. He couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. There were no distorted figures visible anywhere.

"Where are you?" His voice was virtually a hiss; again, it didn't seem to have come from him.

"I've brought a friend."

That time, Donnie could hear where the voice had come from. He swung his body around; the water maintained its hold on him and made the movement infuriatingly difficult.

Frank stood a few meters in front of him; he was somehow perfectly visible despite the water between them. He was still wearing the bunny suit and mask. The grin on the mask seemed to reflect the amusement that Donnie was certain Frank was feeling at the confusion and fear of the stupid human that had stumbled into his lair.

He searched his pocket for the gun. He didn't stop to think that it had failed to do away with him the first time. The gun wasn't there. It didn't much matter to Donnie anyway once he noticed the second figure.

Gretchen stared at him, her eyes a mesh of disbelief and what could only be joy. Frank's hand, or paw, rested gently on her shoulder.

Donnie's anger vanished. For a few moments, it was all he could do to stare at Gretchen with similar disbelief to her own. He barely even noticed as the force keeping him in place vanished. A smile found its way onto his face as he moved towards Gretchen, who was in turn moving towards him.

He threw his arms around her and felt the tightening of her arms around his ribs. For the moment, he no longer cared about anything, not that he was dead, not Frank, not where he was, all that mattered was that Gretchen was all right, and with him.

"I thought you'd never get here." This sentence was stuttered, due to the fact that roughly halfway through it, Gretchen realised that it might sound offensive or uncaring.

"Why are you here?" Donnie asked, not at all offended, "I went back, I died when the plane engine crashed through my roof, you shouldn't have met me. You should be alive."

"She is."

Donnie's head moved to face Frank's, and he released Gretchen from his grasp. He was no longer sure whether he should be trying to kill him or in fact should be thanking him.

"What?" He asked after a few moments.

"Didn't you read this?"

Frank turned to stare at Donnie's left hand. Donnie looked down and found within it a small book. He held the front cover up to him.

The Philosophy of Time Travel, by Roberta Sparrow.

Donnie was silent for a long moment as he flicked through pages, trying to associate seemingly relevant happenings from his final weeks to the words of the book. The answer came on chapter eight.

'If a person dies within the tangent dimension...' His thoughts trailed off as he remembered the car rolling over Gretchen's body, snapping her neck in the process.

"But. But you said," Donnie paused to try and form the correct words, "you said she was alive."

"Here and there." Frank responded.

Gretchen extended a hand and placed it upon Donnie's shoulder.

"Frank explained it to me," She said softly, her eyes turning momentarily to Frank's form and revealing a small amount of nervousness, "I died there, so now I'm here. But because you went back, I'm still alive there as well."

"How is that possible?"

"Does it matter?" She asked, pulling his face closer to hers with her other hand.

Like his anger, Donnie's confusion left him as he and Gretchen kissed. Whilst it lasted, he felt an almost inexplicable sense of relief. It was greater then what he had felt as he realised he had saved the world and that his pain was about to end, it was greater then finding Gretchen again. He knew now that all he had to do was done. He could finally breathe the sigh of relief that he had explained to Roberta Sparrow. He knew, that he and everything else would be all right, from now until the end of time, if such a thing existed.

"No it won't." Frank said suddenly.

To be continued.