Disclaimer: I do Not own Tin Man it and all recognizable characters belong to their respective owners which isn't me i'm just borrowing them for a while :)A big thank you to Hippo-Griff Tamer from being my Beta for this

A/N: I am so Sorry for not updating this in so long i honestly thought i had finished this one (my oops) anyway here it is...and again i am sorry for the long wait.

Chapter 9

Both of the Cain men turned after the princess walked away only to stand there staring at the woman who stood before them. It took a few moments before the silence was broken by Jeb. "Mom? Is it really you? How? Why?"

Adora smiled softly at her son. She was proud of the man he had become and more than happy that he had finally found the one with whom to share his life. She nodded in answer to his question before explaining. "The how would be DG's doing, the why because I need to say farewell. I can't stay long."

Jeb smiled and nodded before sensing that his parents needed a moment alone. "Farewell, Mom," he finally said before he returned to the dining room, giving them privacy.

Wyatt said nothing just looked at the woman whom he had been married to for eighteen annuals. Jeb was right, DG and Adora shared many of the same qualities and were similar in so many ways. However, where Adora had been silent and let him do his own thing, DG was not. His son was right about DG challenging him. He couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips at that thought. His smile grew as he turned to see DG glancing towards where he was standing.

"Wyatt, I want to say I am sorry," Adora spoke so softly he almost didn't hear it. Turning back, he found her standing right in front of him and Jeb nowhere in sight.

"Why? You did nothing wrong," he stated wondering where his son had disappeared to.

Adora had the good sense to look guilty at his words and that had him wondering what she had to be guilty about. "If this is about you not wanting me to be a Tin Man, DG already told me about that."

"No, this is not about that. In fact, she doesn't know what I am about to tell you, for I never told her this. You see, I had the opportunity to let you out of the Suit a few annuals after you were put in and I didn't. And before you get angry there is a reason for it. I had a dream of your release; I saw whom your rescuer would be and who she would be to you. Do you remember telling me before we married about the strange thing that happened to you when you were a young teenager?"

Wyatt thought back to that time and did recall the event she spoke of. He could remember walking in the woods near the cabin he had grown up in. He had been no older than thirteen or fourteen at the time. He had been surprised and a little scared when a bright light had surrounded him and a small ball of light had circled him almost playfully before it stopped before his chest. He remembered the warmth that had filled him when the light was absorbed within his own body. He had not told anyone about that until he told Adora when he had been courting her. He had always wondered why after that day she had seemed to balk at the idea of his pursuing her. Now he understood why. He looked back at her, "Yes, I remember. But what does that have to do with anything?" he asked before his anger took hold of him. "Do you have any idea what happened to me inside that thing?! What I went through day after day? What I was forced to watch? I thought you and Jeb were both dead!" He growled out trying to remain calm but failing miserably. "Do you have any idea at all? I probably would have given up, had it not been for the woman in there," he indicated with a nod of his head before continuing, "Who with no thought to her own safety, ran at the holo time loop, which she thought was real, with nothing but a stick to save a family she did not know! All because they were being hurt?!" He nearly shouted his temper flaring.

Adora gave him a sad smile, for she knew exactly what had happened to him while imprisoned within the suit. There had not been a day that went by the two annuals she had been Zero's prisoner that he didn't tell her exactly what was happening to her husband; that is before the man had told her that Wyatt had died. She decided then to ignore his accusations for the moment and enlighten him to what had happened to him when he had been but a child. "The event you told me about was your soul mate seeking you out after she was born. It is what the light that you absorbed was. It was part of her soul. I saw her in a dream releasing you from the suit. It is the reason I didn't go back, even though I could have. Wyatt, you and I both know that we were never meant to be together. You also know that right now you feel complete because of her." Adora said pointing towards the dining room and the woman within.

He wanted to argue the point but knew she was right. He was complete now. He also knew that he wasn't angry at her. She had after all been told he had died, so his anger wasn't toward her but the man who had broken up their family. "Adora, I know you don't have much time here and you are forgiven. You were told I was dead. I don't blame you for not coming back, the blame falls on Zero not you."

She smiled at that but then said, "You know...if Zero had been speaking the truth while you were at the Northern Palace and I was actually still alive, I would have left you. I would have faked my own death and left and started my life over. I knew Jeb was fine. He had a reason to go on. Now don't give me that look," she paused when she saw that he had schooled his features into his usual stoic mien, which he usually did when he was trying to hide his emotions from the world. However, she knew that he was mentally glaring at her. "The day you found my grave, you were wondering what you would have done about us because you didn't want to be parted from the young woman who had brought you back to life. You, though, would have given up your sole chance at true happiness to stay with me and I would not have let you do that. I would have left because I knew that she was your soul mate and one can not be without the other. You needed her to be happy and that happiness did not lay with me, it never did. We both know that. I knew that the moment you two met something happened between you. I knew that you fell in love with her almost from the moment she let you out of the suit. You tried to hide it under your stoic veneer but I could still see it."

"You've been watching me all this time?" he asked and at her nod he asked confusion clear in his tone, "How did you know she was my soul mate?"

"The small ball of light that you absorbed when you were younger, it happened to my grandparents too, though they were not Soul Paired. You and I both know that a Soul Pairing can only happen if one of the pair has some kind of magic. I also knew that what you would have with her was more then just soul mates finding each other. I knew that you two were a Soul Pair. I knew how rare that kind of pairing was. I also knew that it tends to run in the royal line more than any other."

She stopped and looked at the shocked look on his face. Even though he had yet to say anything she knew that what she was telling him was a lot to take in.

"How?" he managed to choke out. His mind trying to come to terms with what she was saying.

"I kind of had a dream after you told me about that and I saw her in my dream. In fact, I had been dreaming of her for a while at that point. It wasn't until that night when you told me about the light that I figure out who she was."

"You dreamed of her?!" Surprise and shock evident in his voice as he looked at her.

"Yes, I am probably the only one in the OZ, besides her parents, who knew that the princess was not really dead. It's why I fought so hard against your courtship of me. I knew that your soul mate was waiting for you. You, though, can be a very stubborn man, Wyatt Cain. I gave in, knowing that one day you would meet her and that I would be free once more. I did love you but it was never the love of a wife but that of a friend. The love you have for her...Wyatt...not many get to have that. You are lucky," Adora said with a grin.

"How in the Ozma's name did you know that we were a Soul Pair?" he demanded once his mind had caught up with what she had told him.

Adora sighed and said, "I had my suspicions. Especially after you described, in great detail, the light that you had absorbed. But it was also the light that surrounded you at the time that gave me the strongest suspicion. My suspicion was confirmed, after my death, when the last Soul Paired came to me. They told me that history would repeat itself and that DG would not only return and save the OZ from the witch's reign, but that she was destined to not only meet you but also, rescue you and then marry you. Their specific words were 'She will follow in our path though her journey will not be quite the same nor will her mission be. But she is destined to marry the Tin Man she rescued just as I did and that her marriage will bring about the healing of the Outer Zone. They are Soul Paired. Their bond will connect them in ways that many only dream of. They will feel the connection from the moment they meet.'"

Wyatt could only listen to his deceased wife explain what had happened to DG and himself. The fact that she had known about all of this for so long and had never told him made him angry but he couldn't seem to feed that anger. He knew exactly how stubborn he was and he knew that even if she had told him he would not have listened. He had wanted to marry her and nothing would have changed that. He didn't know how to feel about everything. But he did know that he was grateful to have found love twice in his lifetime. For even though she had not loved him the way he might have wanted her to, he had loved her. The proof of that love was the fact that he had been determined to stay true to her memory, rather than pursue the woman that he had known almost from the beginning held his once dead heart in her hands.

Adora interrupted his thoughts saying, "It's time. Farewell, Wyatt and be happy." With those words she began to fade.

"Goodbye, Adora," he whispered just as she fully faded from view his heart finally at peace.