A/N: Here's the final part of the story! This is the one time Nikola actually was dying, set during and after 'Awakening'.

Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed - I really, really appreciate it!

Final Words

…

6. Pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' 'bout half-past dead

It wasn't a bad way to go, all things considered. In the halls of his ancestors, surrounded by their timeless genius, yes, it was fitting. And if he had to choose one sound to be the last he ever heard, then Helen's voice was it, and he was content.

Well, not content. He was in a fairly ridiculous amount of pain. Basically, dying sucked, even if he hadn't been enjoying humanity a whole lot, either.

Still, "Read to me," he said.

And Helen, dear Helen, who was fretting quite charmingly about the whole thing, tried to save him. Was quite determined, in fact. He liked that. He was glad she was here with him, even if her efforts were for naught.

The end came quickly; he could no longer maintain the energy field holding back the tide. He closed his eyes in the glorious presence of a long-dead queen, and thought that it was only fitting that the long years of his life had brought him here.

And so, Nikola Tesla died.

All things considered, it really couldn't have turned out better.

.

.

After the rather dramatic implosion of the underground caverns, the two of them pulled themselves up and dusted themselves off, still rather giddy from the adrenaline of their escape.

"You know, it occurs to me," Nikola said, fingering the ragged, bloody hole in his shirt, "That it's a very good thing my last request wasn't a kiss. Just think, if you'd spent my last few minutes making out with me instead of desperately trying to free the Wicked Bitch of the West back there, well... they really would have been my last few minutes."

"Considering we would never have discovered a good few hundred sleeping vampires, just waiting to be woken and set upon an unsuspecting world - I'd say it is a very good thing you didn't ask for a kiss," Helen said.

"Well, sure, but see, I would have been dead, and therefore not really in a position to care so much about all that." He grinned; she rolled her eyes. Then he thought back over what she'd just said. "Wait, would you have kissed me if I'd asked?"

For a second she looked at him, considering. "Yes," she said. Then she turned and began to pick her way carefully down the rocky slope.

He looked after her for a moment before following. "That sounds promising."

"Well," she added, almost defensively, as he caught up to her, "Except you're not likely to almost die again any time soon, though, are you?"

"Never thought I'd see a downside to being a vampire..."

"It all turned out for the best, didn't it? Well, except the loss of the map."

"Is that all you have to say? I did, you know, die."

"And just look at you now." She shook her head; he wished he could see her face properly, but she was keeping her focus dead ahead as they moved along. He thought of her back in the tomb, increasingly desperate to the point where she didn't bother trying to conceal it.

She was not so unaffected now, either, he decided.

"To be honest, I find it very difficult to imagine a world without Nikola Tesla in it," she added after a time.

And what was that supposed to even mean?

Of course, being a vampire, he had plenty of time to figure it out.

.

.

In the jeep, back on the road - or what passed for a road in these parts, more like a vague track with far more rocks and holes than flat surface - the beginning of their bumpy trip was fairly quiet. Helen was driving and he just watched her, or looked out the window. Mostly, he watched her.

The significance of what had just happened was still sinking in.

He had died, and been reborn.

And some awful, genocidal, megalomaniac woman had bitten him, thrown him in a pit, called him names, and tried to make Helen into her own private happy meal.

But still, focusing on the positives here.

Like Helen's face, bathed in golden light from the sun setting over the hills - he could look at such a sight forever.

After a while spent on such ruminations, Helen finally seemed to notice his attention. Or perhaps reached the limit of ignoring it. She frowned, glancing over at him. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just... you care."

"What?"

"You care!"

"Really. I just turned you into a vampire - again - to save your life, and you're going to sit there and tease me about feelings like some ridiculous schoolboy? Are you ever going to grow up?"

"I notice you sort of avoiding the issue, but to answer your question, no. No! That's the entire point."

"Oh really, there's a point?" she muttered.

Instead of answering he put his hand out and pulled the parking brake lever.

The car swerved alarmingly, brakes screeching, wheels skidding in the loose gravel until Helen managed to wrestle the vehicle under control and bring it to a jerking halt.

She sat for a moment in the sudden stillness, chest heaving and her hands clutching the wheel. She carefully turned the key in the ignition, switching off the engine. And then she rounded on him furiously. "What in God's name do you think you're-"

Before she even finished her sentence he was kissing her; fiercely, joyfully, pushing her back into her seat and tasting her lips with abandon for as long as he dared. And oh, it was sublime. Then, still holding her face in his hands, he stopped kissing her and spoke.

"The point, Helen, you stubborn, intransigent woman, is that you care. That there is precisely one person in the world who gives a damn about me, and I am so glad that it's you." He sighed, and said again more quietly, "I'm so glad it's you."

He leaned in again and kissed her once more, softly and briefly this time.

She had taken all this in, watching him with those impassive eyes of hers. But finally she mustered a response.

"Again," she said, rather breathlessly this time, "What in God's name do you think you're doing?"

"Thanking you." He moved one of his hands in order to brush her hair back from her face. "Thank you, Helen."

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, her eyes dropping just as quickly to his mouth and back up. "You almost got us killed, you bloody maniac."

"Well, you perhaps. I'm virtually indestructible again, and let me tell you, I couldn't be more thrilled."

"I hate you."

"But you want me."

With one hand she reached up and, carefully and deliberately, pushed his face away from hers. He fell back into his seat with a slightly giddy grin. "All right," he said agreeably, "But you can't deny you didn't entirely not kiss me back. I'm just saying."

Turning in her seat to face him, she picked up his hand in both of hers and held it. He sat forward a little, encouraged. She spoke. "Nikola, you know, I don't make confessions like this very often. But you're my oldest friend. I could never have sat and watched you die like that if there was anything I could do to stop it. I'm so glad you're alive, I really am. And I swear, on everything I hold dear, if you ever kiss me like that again -"

He deflated. "Let me guess, you'll kill me?"

"No. I'll de-vamp you again."

She really was a cruel, heartless woman in her own way. And still, a vast improvement on the would-be, now thankfully deceased, bitch queen of the world back there. No, this experience just proved what he had always known in his heart to be true: Helen was the only woman for him.

"Fine," he agreed airily to her terms. "That's fine, dear. Next time you can make the first move."

She scoffed, shaking her head as she shifted to take hold of the steering wheel. As she started the jeep up again and eased back onto the poor excuse for a road, she said, "Did you learn nothing from all of this?"

"As a matter of fact, I learned something very important. You know I had to become mortal to learn I wasn't afraid of dying? There's something so poetic about that. But you, you've always been fearless. This is why we deserve immortality, you and I, Helen."

"In the legends, as soon as you start to think you deserve something, that's when you almost certainly don't."

"Oh, legends - we'll make our own."

His smile was a permanent fixture on his face. It was indeed a whole new world.

"You're slightly delirious right now, aren't you?" Helen accused.

"Oh, almost certainly. Just keep driving..." He waved a hand lazily.

"And keep watch for antelopes?"

He laughed, and after a moment she joined him. And when he reached over, seeking a little human contact - or inhuman contact as the case may be - she didn't protest.

Well, not for a whole ten seconds, anyway.

"Nikola, take your hand off my leg."

It was all right, though, everything was all right. There was plenty of time, now, for that - for them - for everything.

the end.