The jester woke up, his brain registering before his body. I'm alive, his mind said. He forced his eyes open, tried to sit up on his bed and failed. Outside his window, birds chirped, and a cool breeze wafted in from somewhere. The smell of wood and flowers filled the room. "The fuck?" was all he could manage.

"Robin," came a familiar voice. "Thank god."

Puck's eyes fluttered open. Sitting at the edge of his bed, Ash looked both relieved and stunned.

"Ash? What's going on?"

"You've been asleep for several days," the Unseelie fey explained. "Unconscious. We were afraid you'd gone under again, like when you'd been shot."

"'We?'"

"Myself, Meghan and Officer Capala. We're all fine, and we've been taking turns watching over you." He sighed. "Thank god you've woken up."

"But...but what about the invasion? What's happened?"

"Taken care of. Your man, Fission, kept reinforcements from overwhelming us. Thanks to him, we were able to push back enough to gain the advantage and overtake the rebels. We've captured their leaders; a woman named Gage and her father Arrakis, a man who used to have a position in the Iron Army, oddly enough, but who resigned a few years ago." The trickster shuddered, but the other man didn't seem to notice.

"That's...good." Robin paused. "Ash, I have to ask; are you okay? I mean, the last time I saw you, you were lying on the floor with blood all over you."

The other man frowned, then his eyes widened as he remembered the last time they'd seen each other. "Back during the first invasion," he realised. "I'd been knocked out by a piece of debris." He chuckled. "I'd forgotten. Yes, I'm fine. I healed up quickly. Still, though. I think your injury is the most concerning here."

The jester smiled. "I guess." He swallowed. "Can I...can I get up? To go see Capala and Meghan?"

"Let me check with one of the nurses." He got up and walked to the door, then paused. "Robin...you don't know how much I appreciate what you've done for Meghan. And the dryads, and everyone else. You've done a lot, and in just one month."

"Has it seriously been that short?" Puck asked.

"It has. I just want to say...you have my thanks. I found out what happened after I recovered from the initial invasion, how you'd taken Meghan on the run. I'm sorry I couldn't be there." The ex-Winter Price sighed. "You've changed, Robin," he said. "For the better, for the worse, it depends on who you ask, but...you're not the same person you were four years ago. You're not even the same person you were a month ago."

"...So everyone keeps telling me," the trickster muttered.

"Everyone's telling you because it's strange. You're Robin Goodfellow, the incorrigible servant of Oberon. You haven't changed in hundreds of years."

"Yeah, well..." Puck swallowed. "...I'm not living someone else's story, any more. I'm not just Oberon's servant, not just a goofball with a lot of enemies. I'm Puck. I have my own life now."

Ash gave the trickster a small, slightly proud nod. "So you have. And I think you're the better for it." With that, he departed into the hallway.

After Puck got the go-ahead to get up and get dressed, he sent for some food and a fresh change of clothes. He emerged from his bed and stumbled out into the hallway, bumping into Capala as she ran around the corner to his bedroom. "Puck!" she shouted, surprised, and wasted no time in wrapping her arms around him and planting a kiss on his lips. "I heard you woke up. I'm so happy you're safe."

Robin returned her affection with the same ardour, speaking only when they stopped for breath. "Me too." After a moment, they pulled away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the woman said with a smile. "Ash told us you're healed."

"Yeah. Cap...what's happened? Is Meghan all right? What about the dryads? Fission? Ash told me Gage and Arrakis are in custody but-"

"Robin." The woman put her arms around his neck, effectively silencing him. "Meghan's fine, Barla can't wait to talk to you and explain everything, and Gage and Arrakis are in the dungeons. They will receive a fair trial later in the month, though I doubt they'll get a lenient sentence."

"And Fission?"

The smile faded. "Fission..." She swallowed. "Fission's funeral is tonight, love. He died fighting outside the kingdom. He destroyed any reinforcements that showed up, tanks, soldiers...without him, we might've lost."

Puck took a deep, shaking breath. "That's...I can't believe it."

"I know." The smile came back, sadder and softer. "I told Meghan what he did, how he left the rebels and fought for us to make sure Meghan wouldn't get killed. He won't be forgotten."

"No, he won't." Robin pulled her close, and they shared a less passionate, more sorrowful embrace. They stood like this, enjoying each other's touch as they often did, before Capala stepping away again.

"I can't keep you all to myself, though I'd like to," she smiled. "I'm sure Barla and Meghan want to meet you. Let's go."

The pair found the dryads housed in the Summer gardens, where Barla first ran over to greet them, launching herself at the trickster and wrapping her arms around him. "Puck!" she exclaimed. "It's so good to see you."

Robin responded by hugging her back and lifting her off the ground with a grin, making her squeal. "It's good to see you too, Barla," he replied. He set her back down on the ground and let the rest of the dryads come over and demand hugs and hellos.

"You won't believe what's happened!" one of them said. "Queen Meghan is finding us a new place to live!" another announced.

Shocked and thrilled, the trickster spoke. "That's...that's fucking amazing. I can't believe it."

"They rescued us from the rebels!" another shouted, pushing through the small crowd. "General Glitch came while you were asleep and got us here!"

"And then we got to ride more horses!"

"And they showed us all around the castle!"

"And they did this..."

"And they did that..."

A long time passed like this, with the dryads relegating every detail about the trip from the Tokyo park back to the Iron Palace. In truth, Puck only half-listened, paying more attention to the fact that the dryads looked happy, for the first time since...since Aster had died. He thought about her greeting him before he fell unconscious, about her presence that comforted him as he waited to die. He wondered if she'd be proud of him, seeing him fight to make sure what was left of his family made it to their new home.

"Robbie?" Everyone paused, bowing their heads out of respect as Meghan stepped forward with a shy smile. "I hate to interrupt, but I'll just be a moment. If I may."

"Of course," came the rumble of the dryads, backing away from the trickster.

Meghan came and wrapped her shorter arms around Robin's neck, pulling him in for a chaste hug. "I'm glad you're okay, Robbie," she said.

Puck smiled and returned the hug. "I'm just happy you're alive, Princess."

With a kiss on the cheek, Meghan retracted. "In your absence, I've been really trying to make my people happy," she told him. "Talking to Ash, my advisors, my citizens...my leadership isn't just a thing I have, any more, it's a thing I earn. And I can at least say I'm working to earn my people's trust back."

The dryads cheered and the Iron Queen blushed. Ash stepped forward too, wrapping an arm around his wife's waist. "I'm afraid I have to steal Goodfellow and the officer from you," he told the dryads. As they moaned their dissent, he raised a hand. "I'm terribly sorry, but we must pay our respects to a soldier lost in the fight for our kingdom. I'm sure you understand."

A small hand wrapping around his own drew Robin's attention. He looked to see Barla smiling up at him, her big brown eyes filled with pride and sadness. "Aster would be proud of you," she whispered. "I know she would."

Ignoring the sudden tightness in the throat, Puck smiled back and hugged her. "She'd be proud of you too, Barla," he replied. "You're leading the group, now. And I know you'll do it well."

The fey don't have traditional funerals. Not least because so few people care if someone dies. Death is a rare and generally unimportant thing in the Nevernever. A warrior get killed on the hunt. A mortal wanders through a trod and gets eaten. A phouka upsets someone and gets themselves killed. Bit whoop. Almost never is anyone of any importance killed, and even fewer of those have people that care enough to bury them. Or eat them. The fey have wildly different traditions, depending on who you're talking to and where you are.

But the Iron fey are close enough to mortals that they knew how to hold a funeral, of sorts.

No words were said, as the moon ascended into the sky and stars blinked into existence, one by one. No one spoke as Fissions body was turned to ash and fused into his sword, the cool steel now a shining grey. No one breathed as Fission's sword, the sword that killed so many tanks and rebel soldiers, was placed above the door to the Iron palace, forever a memorial to the man who died fighting so two people could save the queen.

No one knew him well enough to give a speech. No one could find the words to do so, if they tried. And there, looking up at the blade perched over the door, Robin remembered someone else who needed a final goodbye.

Weeks later, in the new land of the dryads, Robin knelt in front of the biggest tree he had found. A mammoth of a tree, it loomed over the pair of fey standing beneath it and cast a shadow far past them. It sat isolated from the rest of the dryads' home, found only by a small and overgrown path.

"You never got a proper burial," the trickster said, pulling out his knife and carving letters into the old wood. "And now I have time to grieve, so I will. You changed me in every way, making me a new person. A better person. Without you, so much could be different. I love you, and I always will. I will never forget what you've done for me. Never."

He pulled back and Capala knelt to place the items under the lettering, between the great roots of the tree that sunk into the ground. "I didn't know you for very long," the woman said, "and certainly not as well as I would have liked, but...but I know you were a great person. I knew you had a heart bigger than almost anyone else. I know you were good, and kind, and impacted the world more than you know. May you rest in peace."

The word carved into the tree read, 'Aster,' and underneath the name lay some of her favourite things; the cup she always drank from. A book she'd said a mortal dropped in the forest when she was young and had always treasured. Some of her favourite flowers, that she always seemed to smell of.

Puck felt himself tear up. As water blurred his vision, he waved a hand and the flower took root in the soil. The glamour worked it's way around the tree, creating blossoms all around the roots and made them grow from a few points on the tree trunk. He felt the tears drip down his cheeks.

Capala reached for his hand and squeezed, pulling him to her side and comforting him. "I'm here, Robin," she whispered.

"I'm not sad," he said, voice choked. "I...I'm just glad I got to say goodbye. I did, before. She just...died. Now...now I'm okay."

The woman gave him a sad smile. She didn't speak, just kissed him on the cheek and let her presence comfort him. "What now?" she whispered after a moment.

Puck sniffled and wiped his face with the sleeve of the hand Capala wasn't holding. "Well," he said, "Oberon's probably pissed at me for taking so long to visit. You've got work back at the Iron Kingdom. Grimalkin's still a shifty bastard, and I need to talk to him about a few things, so..."

"I'm not leaving, Robin," Capala murmured. "Meghan will let me go with you, no matter what. You know that. You just tell me where we're going, and I'll stay by your side."

Puck was finishing up packing his bags, getting ready to leave his family once more. Capala waited just outside the room, preparing for their journey. He lifted the pack over his shoulder and froze when he caught sight of the Cait Sith perched on his bed. "Grimalkin," he said, surprised. "Where have you been?"

"Around," the cat purred. "I see your life has worked out, then. On to the next adventure, I suppose?"

"Yeah. Something like that." Robin felt goosebumps rise on the back of his neck. He remembered all the previous times Grimalkin had 'dropped in,' where he'd gotten a cryptic message about how he was being watched by some strange forces. He shuddered to think what Grimalkin had in store now. "So, kitty cat. What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Nothing in particular. I just wish to congratulate you, Goodfellow. Well done."

Puck frowned. "For what?"

"For fulfilling your duty." Grimalkin's tail flicked. "Your story, at least one of them, is complete. You've accomplished what you were called to do."

"What does that mean?" the jester said, chills going down his spine.

"Just that you are free to live the life you've created for yourself. No one holds sway over you, Robin. You're free." The cat jumped down. "Remember that."

Robin watched him as the cat trotted out the room, distracted only by Capala shouted. "Puck!" Capala called, stepping into the room. The jester glanced over to the woman, but when he looked back, Grimalkin had vanished. "What's taking so long?"

The trickster took a few moments to speak. "...Nothing," he said at last. "Let's go, Cap."

Capala snorted. "You're such a woman," she remarked. "It takes you forever to get ready."

"It does not," Puck scoffed. "I'm very manly. All I need is my...lumberjack...axe, yes, and my...um...beard."

"You don't have a beard."

"Well, that's because I forgot it! That's why it takes me so long!"

She laughed. "Really? So you have to grow a beard before you can go anywhere."

"Yes."

"...You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"That's why you love me, isn't it?"

"...Yes. It is."

"I love you, Cap."

"I love you too, Robin."