A/N: Thanks to my reviewers!!!! I can't believe I'm posting so fast! It's been, what, two days and four chapters? And, to Escune, I put little stars in the second chapter but they got out for some reason. So sorry about that!

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A sort of hum breaks out on the gate, and even though my eyes are closed and I'm still half-attached to the real world that now seems so fake, I can see a golden light filtering in through the golden lace work. It's Ichigos lullaby, and as the river pushes me gently forward my foot brushes the bar everything explodes in a shower of sparks. Eyelids or whatever insubstantial thing that shades my eyes from seeing shoot open and I realize this is no golden gate. My mind had painted pictures of golden light behind a perfect barrier, of a clear river and gentle sounds. The gate was a decrepit wall of wood and nails nailed in the wrong way, barbs along the barrier. The river was black with shifting things, glints of red that twinkled like rubies. The smell of rotting things is thick in the air, and I give a howl.

"Don't cry . . . Don't sigh . . . Perfect things are father than the reaches of w-i-i-ings . . . ." Ichigos lullaby, coming over the water is accompanied by words. Only it's not her normal fast talk, or her depressed murmur, its a heartfelt slow, aching song that carries words of peace. I can't hear anything but the beautiful words. I force my eyes to stay open and look around. Spread eagled on the surface of the water, like she was riding on a raft that I can't see is the Monkey Mew, not transformed, smiling dreamily like she was feeling the utmost ecstasy. Like I had felt moments ago. Only now I know it was false, the water is thick with oil and pollutions, and the gate is a rotting dais of wood.

"Stop! Stop! Get out of the water!" I scream, but no sounds come out. I start to move but the water holds me down, the lies of peace and serenity beyond the gate are only traces of what they were, and not strong enough to fool me. The monkey will reach the gate in a few moments, and I can only hope she can open her eyes. I try to struggle and splash around in the foul water, but the strain of keeping my eyes open is too much, the energy to resist the call of never ending sleep is making me sick. Something soft brushes against my arm and I turn my head the tiniest bit, all I can do. The porpoise Mew is lying in the water almost like it was her bed, clutching one of Pai's fans. Her braids trail along the water like two snakes, and she is moving so much faster than I was, she has completely given in to the gate; unable to protest what she knows is wrong. Her eyes are slowly sliding shut. She opens her mouth as if to scream in pain, but nothing comes out. Silent as I. But this not sound gives me the power to look around, to kneel in the shallow, awful water. I see the silhouette of Taruto on the shore, almost alive but still drifting into death. The blue Mew turns in the water, limbs splayed like a star, rotating like a dancer. The purple Mew lies stoically in the water like she's already in a coffin, her eyes shut and arms by her sides.

"No! No no no!" I scream, and it makes a tiny sound. I stand up, trying to fight the urge to just lie down and drift forever. The current nearly topples me but I manage to stay upright, just as a pulse of pink light echoes through the river.

And suddenly I see Ichigo, stumbling into the water of her own objection, running, splashing towards the Purple Mew, the only one close.

"Zakuro! Zakuro where are we? ZAKURO!" She shakes her but the Mew just splashes back into the water.

"Minto!" she cries and runs to the blue Mew. "Minto, oh, not you too!" She looks around desperately searching for something to see as alive.

"Kisshu." She says, voice blanking of all emotion as her eyes travel over all of it, even of Deep Blue far through the gate already. I start walking to her and she reaches out scratched arms to me, and I hold her. Her knees buckle and I gently lower us into a sitting position. She looks up at me with her pink eyes filled with tears. I cradle her in my arms and she relaxes, but her mouth opens, the sounds coming out scratchy as she struggles to speak.

"I-I-I love M--" I knew what the rest of the sentence was so I just leaned down and kissed her. I felt the letters reverberating in her throat. A-s-a-y-a.

" . . . you." she said after I pulled away. She looked at me one more time with her wonderful pink eyes, filled with tears. "I love you, Kisshu."

The End